Posted by Gary Antosh | Posted in insecticides | Posted on 08-11-2010
Tags: garden, gardening, insecticide, insecticides, neem oil, plant care
Glamour from the blossoms, and colored leaves, all kinds of wonderful odors from the scented leaved varieties, useful in bouquets as well as for the garden or potted plants. A background from a family of plants more than centuries old. Loved by rich and poor alike.
Instead of calling them Pelargoniums, let's call them by their grand old name Geraniums. I wonder if we realize how beautiful and wonderful the Geranium really is? In the flowering type, or the Zontal types. One may obtain practically any color, or color combination one might desire, from pure whites to purple, and wonderful blends.
In the scented types, one may have apple, nutmeg, lime, ginger, pine, oak, lemon, orange, lemon balm, rose, etc.
One of the good features of having a collection of Geraniums is that they may be kept in small lots. Of course they will have to be fed to keep them growing and healthy. Be careful feeding and watering, not to overdo either or they are apt to drop their leaves, and the colored leaved varieties are apt to lose some of their high coloring.
There are many different opinions as to what is best to feed geraniums. I think the leading commercial preparations may be depended on if directions are followed.
Cuttings are easily taken, and rooted. One may root them in water, or in sand. The method I like best is soil and sand mixed, placing the cutting directly in a small pot of 2-1/2 size. By this method the roots have the soil to feed on as soon as they start, and do not have to be transplanted.
After cuttings have outgrown the 2-1/2 inch pots, I use a mixture of good garden soil, some well rotted cow manure, and a little bone meal. This gives wonderful results.
Most people hate to pinch the top out of a growing plant, but that is the only way to have a fine well-branched plant. Pinch when the plants are small, and keep pinching.
Geraniums are quite free from insects. Aphis and white fly bother some varieties, but if watched and sprayed with neem oil, the trouble here is very light.
Geraniums of all types are to my way of thinking, the best plant for the home or conservatory. It is a great pleasure to brush your hand over the leaves getting wonderful odors, or just stand and admire the brilliant colors of both leaves and blossoms.
After one starts collecting geraniums, it seems that you must keep looking for other varieties. At present I have around 100 varieties of the various types, and hoping to add a great many more.
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