Genetic Analysis and Vase Life Characteristics of a New Bright-Pink Gerbera Cultivar ‘Pink Garden’ with Double Flowers

A new bright-pink gerbera (Gerbera hybrida Hort.) cultivar, 'Pink Garden', was released by the Flower Research Institute of Gyeongsangnam-do Agricultural Research & Extension Service in 2013. 'Pink Garden' was developed in Changwon on 2007 and is a cross between 'Pink Light', a semi-double-type gerbera cultivar with pink flowers, and 'Mephysto', a semi-double-type cultivar with purple flowers. The characteristic trials for selection were conducted on 2008. 'Pink Garden' has large, double-type flowers with pink (RHS, 55B) ray florets. It also has a steady flower shape, middle-strong peduncles, and a vase life of 13.5 days. The average flower yield of 'Pink Garden' was determined in greenhouse trials conducted from 2009 to 2010 and was determined to be 49.5 stems per plant per year. 'Pink Garden' was revealed to be a new cultivar based on random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis and was registered (Grant No. 4575) in the Korea Seed and Variety Service for commercialization in 2013.