I maturate up with geraniums . So did everybody else . The plants of my puerility were , by and large , violent , big - headed , and belong to the genus Pelargonium . My begetter and thousands of like - minded hoi polloi bought their geranium every spring at the local greenhouse . They complained about the Mary Leontyne Price , then consider home their flats of unseasoned plants and installed them in window boxwood , pot on porches and other like places . The slightly risqué people who live down the street from us scoff convention by buy bright pink geranium to cope with their pink house . It was enough to raise my female parent ’s eyebrow .
In westerly New York State , geranium are tender , so they were not ordinarily engraft directly in the garden . When the cold temperatures started to take a price on the geraniums , people either took the plants inside to repose on southward - present windowsills or left them outdoors to expire of exposure and finally be haul off by the trash man .
early on in my gardening calling , I felt that it was my obligation to rebel against the convention that my parent retain dear , so I obviate buy red geraniums , or , for that subject , any of their pelargonium cousin . For long time I concentrate on perennial hardy geraniums , with their simple exclusive peak , deep incised leafage and soil - hugging habit . Hardy geranium come in an array of colouration that do not let in true red and are ready to hand in just about any garden setting . I lead off to think that I simply did n’t need pelargoniums .
Now I know that I do , and it is all because of a small geranium that I saw a local showhouse . This geranium , which is now a occupier of one of my back borders , is a “ fancy leafage ” change . While its shape and leaf configuration resemble go - of - the - mill pelargoniums , it is discern by its ravishing foliage . Each folio is cream at its centre , banded with pink wine in the middle and chartreuse on its frilly away edge . Theflowers on this plantare orangey - cherry-red , and definitely take a back derriere to the leave . In fact , you would have a wonderful spectacle even if you cut the efflorescence stalk off before the blossoms appeared .
Fancy leaf geranium like mine are “ zonal ” geraniums , as are most common varieties . The “ zone ” in question is a sullen stripe on the leaves , which can be passing faint or quite marked , depend on the variety . Fancy foliage geranium are zonary types that have been breed specifically for their interesting leaf grading .
geranium originate in South Africa and began seem in England in the seventeenth century [ check ] . Two hundred twelvemonth later , the Victorians , with their love of all things vary , had a passion for the fancy leaf eccentric . There were hundred of unlike fancy leaf geraniums in cultivation during the square-toed epoch , including , “ Crystal Palace Gem ” , with gold leaves patched with darker green ; “ Double Mrs. Pollack ” , with lily-livered - green scallops and glum red and orangish splodge ; and Mrs. Cox , a tricolour with a green philia , imperial geographical zone and a creamy icteric bound . These geranium became part of the bedding - out dodge that were so fashionable in Victorian gardens .
In an campaign to develop more fancy leaf varieties , I go online in lookup of them . I come up a twain of nurseries , Allannah ’s Greenhouses ( Box 2 , Danville , WA 99121 , earpiece 250/442 - 2552 . Send $ 2.00 for a printed catalog or order of magnitude online at www.alannahs.com ) , and Davidson - Wilson Greenhouses , Inc. ( Department 10 , Rural Route 2 , Box 168 , Crawfordsville , IN 47933 . Send for publish catalog or order online at www.davidson-wilson.com ) . Between the two companies , there are about 38 cultivar to choose from . Some , like “ Vancouver Centennial , ” and the blank - veined “ White Mesh ” are every bit at home in pots or woven hoop . There are also dwarf miscellanea , such as “ Cherry Time ” , which has foliage marked with light green and chartreuse combined with cherry - violent double flower ; and ” Friary Wood ” , with golden leaf , chestnut zoning and doubleflowers line as being a “ unique pinkish - mauve ” shade .
The best affair about the zonal geraniums is that they are usually easy to propagate from radical cutting . To do so , withdraw a stem 3”-4 ” inches long with two or three leaf nodes . Remove the leaves , dip the fore in rooting hormone ( not mandatory , but helpful ) , pot it up in a 2 ” pot filled with damp vermiculite , and cover with a plastic grip . Place in collateral lighting . Within 4 - 6 week , the cutting should commence sprouting radical . you could tell whether this has occurred by pull gently on the press clipping . If it balk , there are roots below the surface . The rooted cutting should be potted up in and localise in a well - alight spot .
For the effective foliage color , avoid putting your fancy folio geraniums in the sunny touch in your one thousand . preserve the southerly exposures for your roses or peony , and bank the pot of fancy leaf geranium on the north side of the garden . commemorate that they will not survive hard frost , so in the fall either bring in the industrial plant or root some cuttings for winter semblance .
