Thursday 17 November 2011

Geraniums

Geraniums have been on my mind today...

I have a 'thing' about geraniums (pelargoniums) As far as I'm concerned, the louder & more ridiculous the better! The smell of their leaves is wonderful & instantly transports me back to my grandparents' greenhouse...


A few years ago I started to over-winter my geraniums. I used to over-winter them before but kept forgetting & having to start from scratch again & again & again... Last winter, I was a bit worried but they survived despite the very low temperatures (We recorded a relatively warm -10 degrees centigrade in our garden last year, elsewhere in the city is was lower)

Around October I keep an eye on the weather & as soon as it starts to drop I prune them back hard & put them in the shed, (I have a very tiny shed/cupboard/lean-to with a clear corrugated plastic roof & plenty of cobwebs)


The Geraniums will live here all winter, with a very occasional drop of water but on the whole pretty dry soil, until spring when I will pot them up with new compost & lots of feed ready for another year of flowering.

As for the prunings, some I plant on & keep inside the house (in case of shed-disaster). I couldn't bear to remove all the leaves just yet so will hold on for few more days...



I put the flowers in make-shift vases, (old medicine cup & tea glass) to meet my weekly challenge inspired by Backlane Notebook.


Yet somehow they look at a bit too garish in this subtle autumn light...

14 comments:

KatEzat said...

Oh my goodness, I so needed this. I grew a whole batch of geraniums from seed in the spring and they've been flowering all summer and they are still producing buds, and bunches of blooms despite -3 in the night here in Hamburg. I have them against the house wall for shelter on the balcony, but now I know what needs to be done - pruning! Thanks for this post!

Here's a link to the other love of my love, my orchid:

http://lifesjewelsonstring.blogspot.com/search/label/orchid

BTW, leave me a comment if you are interested in seeing my geraniums as seedlings, I took a photo a day for a while and they are oh soooo cute! ;)

Pomona said...

But still very cheerful and joyful! We must do something about our single but very bushy geranium. So many times we have been caught out, because it is so mild here, but there has been rather a high rate of attrition in the last two cold winters.

Pomona x

Annie Cholewa said...

Vibrant is the word that came to my mind. That is a gorgeous splash of colour, not garish at all.

nimble fingers and steady eyebrows said...

We had a lovely row if pink and red geraniums in the flowerbed at the front of the new house. Our only gardening job so far has been digging them up to overwinter in the shed. I love geraniums. They remind me of Loveday's geraniums in the fabulous children's story, The Little White Horse. Yours are v pretty and the post challenge is a fab idea. Laura x

Karen S Booth said...

I adore geraniums and love their bright cheery colours.......tried to email you today, but having problems with my new email settings on my new laptop......I only have tomorrow morning left to get the jelly to you, if this is not convenient than I will post it!
XX

Calico Kate said...

Not garish At All. Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Love love love them especially the lipstick red ones. They take me back to my grandparents too, only it was their spare bedroom window sill which was very long and very wide so must have housed about 20 at any one time. Once we move I'd like to have more indoors ones the sort with the scented leaves. What a lovely bright injection of colour to start my grey day.
CKx

Anonymous said...

I would love those colours in a pot on my kitchen table especially at this time of year. And thanks for the brilliant tip on over=wintering in the garden shed. I have a shed, it has a shelf, it has windows, so next year I can finally indulge in bright red geraniums.

Anonymous said...

It's just that grey skies make anything cheerful and bright look a little too bright. I think they look lovely!

KatEzat said...

Hi! Thanks for your orchid comment.

Check out a year in the life of my geraniums here:

http://lifesjewelsonstring.blogspot.com/2011/11/geraniums-for-thrifty-household.html

Take care x

Jenny said...

Visiting from Down to Earth. Beautiful geraniums. I wish I had read your post about 1 year earlier. I brought my geraniums inside but they didn't make it through the winter. Will have to give it another try.

Mrs. Micawber said...

Not at all garish! The brighter the better, I say. Here in Wisconsin people hang their geraniums upside down (why, I don't know) and put them in the basement for the winter. They seem to pop right back in the spring. I keep mine going year-round because I desperately need a few flowers in January! Yours are beautiful.

Mrs. Micawber said...

P.S. Forgot to say that if you like to knit, I'm holding a giveaway with a Jane Austen-themed knitting pattern magazine as the main prize. Come over and drop your name in the hat!

http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiveaway.html

Kate Moore said...

They're lovely, aren't they? Years and years ago, during one of our horrid droughts, city Girl Guides were asked to pot red geraniums from their gardens to send to the country Guides. It was a simple act to bring life and colour to people who had had their gardens destroyed.

Julie said...

I love geraniums too. I have a couple of treasured scented geraniums which come inside every winter and live on the stairs. I don't cut them back as hard as I should since the kids always knock bits off throughout the winter (does help to release their lovely smell too)! Juliex

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