I've only had one year's worth of experience with Gerberas, so no expert to be sure. Being somewhat fascinated by the plant, it seemed to me that as soon as I took down the stems of spent blooms, new buds started to form. The longer I left the spent blooms, the longer it took for new buds. The new bud stalks form in among the leaf axils at the crown - and grow to blooming size pretty rapidly - so cutting the old ones far down does no damage.

I'm not sure what you're looking at, but I don't see anything in those pictures that remotely resembles flea beetles. Nor is that the sort of damage I expect from flea beetles. Flea beatles are tiny things that hop around like fleas (hence the name) and they leave tiny holes peppershot all over the foliage of plants, like lacework. They do not swarm per se, though you will usually not see just one or two flea beetles. They are also about the size of a small flea. If you have flea beetles, I wouldn't expect them to be visible in a picture of that resolution. They're tiny and fast. Regardless, get some neem and spray whatever it is away. You're not going to hurt butterflies or bees with it. Neem is actually used in hive management by beekeepers to control mite infestations in the hive. Just a foliar spray will do the job - you don't need to spray the bug itself. Neem isn't really a contact poison. If the bugs are eating the leaves or flowers or any other part of the plant, that'll most likely take care of them.

Gerbera's must all be females!.....just kidding ladies. They are a pain in the ... This is my first year planting these outside in my outdoor flower garden. A couple have died, a few more do bloom and one looks healthy but will no longer seems to bloom at all. They all get approx. 3-4 hrs of sun usually from 11 am to 2-3 pm. All planted facing east in front of residence. I watered lightly in spring and almost daily in summer. Some blooms wilt in summer sun some do not. The red bloom gerbers are NOT the hardiest for some reason. I use Miracle Gro fertilizer approx. once every 7-10 days. I have a large bright orange gerber that when I bought it, it had huge size blooms ....now they still bloom but are very short petal sized blooms and not very tall....and the yellow/orangish blooms on other gerbers are now tall in length of stem and bloom well. So, go figure, they are very puzzling plants indeed. Finally, I have one general strong suggestion for all for all outdoor planting of new flowers bought anywhere. Miracle-Gro Garden Soil is just superb. Everything I plant with it does so well. I have never seen such wonderful soil to plant with. BIG HINT: When planting with this soil, make sure you have an approx. minimum extra inch of free space all around the plant you are planting outdoors, then stuff down all around the plant this MG soil garden soil. Believe it or not....Too many outdoor gardeners only plant the new plant in its exact size in the ground-you have to leave some space all the way around it at least 1 full inch-then add then MG soil all around that space. Good luck and remember- a good gardener does not only necessarily have a green thumb- he/she has brown knees!...get a good knee scrubber too.

Not all plants can be propagated by cuttings. You cannot propagate Gerbera from stem cuttings. You either need to grow it from seed, or, if it has grown to a reasonable size you can divide it. Your Gerbera is not yet big enough to divide. I suggest you do some Googling for instructions. The link is for Australia but the methods will be the same for you. Here is a link that might be useful: Gerberas