Summary: Summertime puts geraniums in the spotlight! Many different varieties create a blaze of bloom in window boxes, gardens and containers. It is time to add geraniums to your garden collection.
Summertime is geranium time! It is the season not only to enjoy geraniums’ full blaze of bloom in window boxes and garden, and to take cuttings from favorite plants to brighten winter window sills, but it is also the time to cast a roving eye around at the new and different varieties you might consider adding to your garden and house plant collection.
It seems that every so often plant breeders develop fine new hybrids which bring into popular favor a “neglected flower”. We have watched over the years such occurrences with hemerocallis, African violets, Anthuriums, Phalaenopsis orchids and others.
Hybridizing of pelargoniums (geranium is the common term for the zonal pelargonium) has developed along many lines:. although most of the several hundred species came from South Africa. But the developments in the flowers of the common pot-plant geraniums I find of particular interest, for the results have been rich indeed.
Just as dahlias, chrysanthemums and zinnias have all been hybridized so that their bloom resembles that of other flower families, so have the blossoms of geraniums been modified in size and form by breeders. There are for example, the phlox-flowered geraniums, capable of producing wintertime blooms on house plants which could easily be mistaken for the clusters of annual or perennial phlox. There are also pansy and rosebud types. And then there are the odd, double, cactus-flowered geraniums, at least a few of which you should add to your house plant collection.
Many hybrids also differ from common geraniums in flower color pattern and color range, as the variety color descriptions will attest. Indeed, wonderful things have been done with the geranium color range, both in producing new clear shades and tints and in combining these into new patterns.
Unusual Gerenium Club
Let’s consider briefly the fancy-foliage geraniums, whose eye-catching leaf markings entitle them to membership in our “unusual geraniums” club. Although the many-colored foliage of the variety “Skies of Italy” has been admired in public parks and gardens in Europe for many years, in America the growing of decorative-foliage varieties has not been as popular. The hybrid “Mr Henry Cox” is a most spectacular variety of this type.
The scented-leaved geraniums too, merit a mention in any discussion of unusual geraniums. Old-timers among these species plants include the rose, nutmeg, and lemon-scented geraniums, while also available are the strawberry, mint and lime geraniums.
The aroma of the lime geranium is apparently several times stronger than the foliage of the lime trees growing in my garden. It is so strong that at one time the government was sponsoring experiments to determine whether lime-scented geraniums could be used as a commercial source for the equivalent of oil of lime. These scented varieties are useful in cooking and for making sachets, and should be in every herb garden.
Novelty Geraniums Culture
The culture of these novelty geraniums is no different from that of common ones. The geranium is more tolerant of varied growing conditions than almost any other flower. Certainly it is more easily grown than any other house plant. It is extremely tenacious of life, succumbing to no diseases and failing only when exposed to actual frost or given too much water. It does not require humidity, but on the contrary survives extreme heat and drought much better than excess soil or air moisture. It is so resistant to drought that the bare plants may be hung during winter in the cool basement, and are easily revived when repotted in spring to produce growth for fresh cuttings. Cuttings may be made at any time of year. Those taken now (June) will bloom on winter window sills, while September cuttings may be used next spring as bedding plants or for the outdoor window box.
Landscaping With Geraniums
A final word on landscaping with geraniums, which are well known to be one of the most useful subjects both for the house and in the garden border. When used in the border, remember that they are most effective when planted alone. Their brilliant colors are ideal for edging walks and for massing against walls or buildings. In frost-free regions such as southern California, geraniums are also used to cover fences and retain banks and as groundcovers.
by C Philip
