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“Old fashioned!” “My Grand mother has those in her garden”. “These get all ugly and stretchy.”
These are a few of the notable negative comments that I hear people mutter under their breath as they stand at our stall at the Fresh Food markets. Latte in one hand and a bag of organic carrots, fresh ginger and a stalk of celery in the other.
“Ahh! So you’re familiar with Geraniums then?” I ask. This question tends to lead into them reminiscing about spending their childhood in Nana’s garden, playing hide-and-seek and how these funny smelling plants with orangey-red flowers were ever present in her overgrown jungle.
“Sounds like you had a great time with fond memories” is my reply.
I don’t feel the need to point out to them that they stopped at my stall because of a burst of colour and an emotional attraction to a plant that is possibly the only one that they remember from their childhood.
More than often, a second voice from another customer bursts into the conversation in defence of these great plants.
“Oh, don’t you like Geraniums? They are one of my favourite plants.”
Love or hate Geraniums, there is more to this group of flowering shrubs than most people realise.
My top reasons for loving these plants:
- They flower all year and they flower a lot. At least in most of Australia. They are not keen if the temperature drops below zero ◦C and if it’s too shady. Other than that, they will keep flowering.
- They are tough. They’ll survive drought, rainy periods, high and low temperatures, coastal regions, mountains and inland.
- The Colours are amazing. Reds, purples, pinks, oranges and whites. There are various shades of bright, pastel and multicoloured petals and many with a different coloured throat.
- Geraniums look outstanding in pots, containers, baskets or in the ground. They are very forgiving and pretty easy to keep looking good in most areas of the home.
Here’s some technical information.
What most people call Geraniums are actually Pelargoniums.
They are one of the most bred plants in the world. The result is that they are constantly coming out with better traits, such as new colours, longer lasting flowers and more compact growth. The newer varieties don’t need to be cut back and you often don’t need to remove the spent flower stalks.
They were introduced to Europe because they were attractive, showed medicinal properties, were easily transported on a ship for months and performed extremely well by people in their homes.
From the overflowing flower boxes on an alpine chalet or window planter in a traditional European village Tudor style house, a Mediterranean shorefront or a stylish glazed pot on your patio, Geraniums will suit most excellently.
We at The Greenhouses Garden Outlet have spent three decades selecting the best bred genetics for our part of the world. We are more than happy to give you growing and care tips so that you’ll get the best performance out of your geraniums.
