“I love daisies. Don’t you think they’re the friendliest flower?”

– Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly in “Sleepless in Seattle.”

Gerber daisies, I think, are quite friendly in many ways — they come in tons of colors ranging from white to red to yellow (and all the colors in between), are big and striking from a distance, and most importantly, are friendly to your wallet. Most brides dream of an all-white wedding dripping with flowers, usually roses or great big lillies and for the more creative ones, orchids.

Gerber daisies are the most commonly used daisies by florists, and they can be used in just about every aspect of decorating. They’re often used in table centerpieces, both short (like above) and tall.

Photo by Flickr’s lukwarmmizer

Either way, the gerbers are high impact and look classy.

Oh, but gerbers aren’t only used in arrangements. I’ve seen them used beautifully in bouquets, cake decorations and other ways.

Photo by Shruti Mathur

Gerbers are colorful enough to give a shot of color to a cake like this. Compared to the other flowers on the cake table around the base of the cake, see how they stand out?

Flickr photo by Osprey24

Then there’s making the gerber daisies a huge part of the cake decorations, like this one. Without the flowers, this three-tiered cake would look really plain, but there is something about having flowers overflow your cake, isn’t there? I love the mix of white, orange and yellow daisies — it makes the whole thing look totally sunny.

I’ve noticed that with the rise of DIY weddings, gerber daisies are being used more in bouquets. Its perfect for folks who don’t have floral design training — all you’d need is maybe five or six stems and some ribbon to wrap them all together and voila — you’ve got a lovely, sunny bouquet.

White gerbers don’t seem to have the same white as, say, white orchids or white roses, which for some reason look more delicate. But I think Kathleen Kelly really nailed it when she said they’re friendly, somehow more approachable. This bouquet won’t make any bridal magazines anytime soon, but I still think its lovely and you wouldn’t feel guilty about throwing it for your bouquet toss.

I’ve even managed to use gerber daisies to decorate a pool! Granted, you probably need more daisies than what I used here — I think I understimated the size of the pool — but in my defense, the fountain streams pushed a lot of the daisies along the walls. Anyway, the daisies just give a shot of color and some visual interest to the pool area.