The thread "Geranium/Pelargonium Photos and Chat!" in Geraniums and Pelargoniums forum

Thank you very much! : ) I'm aware. I'm continuing to update & track these particular plants in this same discussion. If there is a Geranium forum, why would all comments go in 1 discussion?

First bloom on winter-saved plants.


More buds are forming on this one.


This one has really grown a lot in the couple months it has been back outside but I don't see any buds quite yet.

Finding more buds. I really suspect the last few times I've tried these plants before the current batch, the roots were trapped in jiffy pot nets and would not have died if I had rescued or propagated them. I'm starting to feel like they're easy to get along with now.


Another propagated branch.

I'm increasingly excited to learn how little sun is required to get good blooms from these Pels, albeit kind of floppy.

A couple pics from yesterday. I was worried about these plants while I was gone for 10 days but they didn't seem to miss me as much as I did them.

I don't understand these plants at all but love the periodic blooms.

Tiffany, What don't you understand?

What in the *&^%$^%& they want! Sorry for the foul language, but I'm really confounded. And why are the leaves sometimes almost variegated, and sometimes not?
I've heard of overwintering them bare-root, but they seem like very thirsty plants. I see them blooming in other people's pots when it's 95° but every time I've put one out in the sun, it shrivels up. I make myself feel better by assuming they are just fake.

When offered what seems to be like a run of consistency over a few months, plants do not behave consistently. I might even call them moody.

BUT staying alive has been a great step forward. ...and a few months at a time is all the more consistency I can offer before there's a drastic change for the next few months. It's just weird that a change in conditions isn't what seems to result in a change in attitude. There's probably a huge gulf between what I perceive as consistency vs what a plant might experience as consistency. I'm leaving the roots in ground and just keeping cuttings. Probably will just result in enriching the soil, but who knows. Unpredictable plants are more interesting, from a clinical standpoint. Some plants get boring to me after too much predictable behavior.

Alrighty then!
I wonder if your humidity adversely affects them and/if you're overloving them. In dry climates they're reasonably easy with minimal care. Except in the presence of tobacco budworms, my particular nemesis. I really like the leaf variations, always a surprise.

Never tried nor heard of bare rooting them. I've brought potted ones indoors in this cold climate, no problem, but stalks stuck in soil root so easily, that's an easy solution. I'm not sure I've ever rooted then in water either; I'd expect the stalk to rot.

They do tend to bloom in waves and then sulk for a spell. Our NM sun can fry them, but that applies to many so-called full plants here.

In temperate California they grew into massive shrubs that needed periodic hacking back for both size and to control their tendency toward raggedness with age. I've always thought that a red geranium is a staple requirement for every cottage garden. Never cared for the pink.

Interesting anecdotes! Blooming in waves describes it pretty well. Humidity could be a in play. I don't think I overloved anything this summer. It didn't rain for 2 months and I barely had time to keep stuff from wilting. I had to give up on some entire areas of garden that are now just weeds. And some shrubs just aren't going to bloom this year at all, like a few remote Lantanas and confederate roses. The last of the Canna stalks hit the ground about a week before it finally rained a few days ago. I just didn't have time to water that many things that often. Cannas were on the "let it go" list because I don't think one droughty summer is enough to kill them outright.

I don't think any of my Pel plants are significantly bigger than they were in April. They do root easily, and I already have plenty in pots, but I'll want to save all of the good stems.

Over the past couple yrs, I've put about a dozen cuttings in water and about the same number in soil with almost perfect success both ways. I expected rotting from the water too but have been pleasantly surprised that they did so well that way too.

I relate re the heat and drought. We're finally having a coolish autumn, but it didn't arrive before I gave up on the tomatoes and other water lovers. Unquestionably my worst gardening year ever. Praying for amnesia and a fresh start next spring.

LOL! I can relate to that! Too bad this wasn't the year I put a bunch of succulents in the ground. That year it rained so much, they got completely overgrown & lost. Would have been a good year for them this year. But it's exactly that kind of surprise and wondrous anticipation that keeps me coming back to see what happens! And if a few plants didn't die now'n'then, I'd have no excuse to go buy more and the landscape would be too static & boring.
: )

This survived being left in the ground for winter. Now back to blooming.


Clearance plant bought about 2 weeks ago is also back to blooming. So happy it's not another red one! Nothing wrong with red but I was hoping for a color I didn't already have.