Kim Haworth and horticulturist Heather Will-Browne take a look at geraniums, the can-do plant that can be grown by anyone anywhere anytime. There are many different varieties of geraniums: - Floribunda, which is a cross between the garden geranium and the ivy geranium
- Ivy (figure A), which has dark-green trailing leaves
- Bedding, or zonal, the most recognizable geranium (figure B)
- Novelty varieties (figure C), whose foliage is of more interest than the blossoms.
Propagating geraniums is a simple matter requiring only a few basic materials: a parent plant, a small pot of moistened sterile soil and some rooting hormone. - Break off a piece of the parent plant about 4 inches long. Remove any blossoms most of the leaves from the broken end of the stem.
- Dip the broken end in rooting hormone and stick in the pot of soil. It probably isn't necessary to water the pot.
- To determine when the new plant is ready to repot, don't tug on it! Gently turn the pot upside down and look for small white roots protruding from the drainage holes. If you see any, it's ready to be repotted.
Tips: - Don't overwater geraniums; they have succulent stems and prefer to be kept on the dry side.
- Be diligent about removing any diseased-looking leaves.
- To keep your geranium flowering, deadhead regularly: snap off any spent blossoms at the end of each flower stem. Or if the entire blossom isn't yet spent, remove single dead flowers from it.
- There are even scented varieties of geraniums with which you can cook!
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