PELARGONIUM

Family GERANIACEAE
Pelargonium (forms of garden origin)
Perennial

Popularly but erroneously known as Geranium, the Zonal Pelargoniums of gardens are hybrids of the two South African species Pelargonium zonale and Pelargonium inquinans.

These plants are of succulent growth and attain heights of two feet or more.
The leaves are round, three to five inches across, scalloped and toothed, with a dark zone at the centre, and aromatic when crushed; the flowers are mostly single, and inch or more across and are borne in many-flowered umbels, the colours varying from orange-scarlet, pink and salmon to white.
There are some with variegated foliage known as Tricolors.

The best plants are obtained from cuttings rooted in the autumn for planting out in the following spring when all risk of frost has passed.
The site chosen must be sunny and the soil humus-rich.
Seedlings raised from seed sown as soon as it is ripe, in August, will bloom in ten months if grown on under heat in a greenhouse.

Propagation is from cuttings or seed.

The flowering season is in summer.

Pelargonium
Half Hardy Perennial.
One to three feet.
Flowers white, and shades of pink and scarlet, July to November.

The familiar summer bedding plants known to generations as “Geraniums” have of late years changed their names to “Pelargoniums”.

The title which used to belong to that class of pot plants beloved of the green-fly, with dark-blotched crimson and white flowers, now spreads over the whole race; the shaded and blotched blooms now became “Regal”, the old “Geraniums” “Zonal” and the pink-flowered climber “Ivy-leaved” Pelargoniums.
It is more systematic, but a little confusing to old-fashioned people.

As they concern the out-door gardener, Pelargoniums are summer bedding-plants.
They are at present suffering from the reaction after the long vulgarisation of an unintelligent vogue, but there is still a place for their useful spots of bright colour, which continue up to the very verge of winter.

The Zonals (the old “Geraniums”) are the best known and most easily grown variety if the gardener does not possess any plants from which to obtain stock, he should buy rooted cuttings in small pots about the end of May.
Single flowers are more effective than double for outdoor display.

The Pelargonium will grow in very ordinary garden soil, but this does not mean that it should be thrust into any odd corner which has received no preparation whatever.
When once put out, the plants should take care of themselves throughout the summer.
They will stand a good deal of drought, but a dripping season destroys their effectiveness; in rainy times they run to leaf and sometimes almost cease to flower.

Cuttings should be taken from the plants in August – well-ripened tops of the shoots, three or four inches long.
They may be dibbled into the open ground, in a place where they are shaded from the noonday sun.
A few waterings may be necessary, in dry weather, but with ordinary fortune every cutting ought to strike without attention.
Roots should be formed in a month, and the cuttings must be taken up before there is a risk of more than a couple of degrees of frost, and be planted in pots or boxes, so that they can be stored under cover during the winter.
All that is necessary is that the temperature should not go below 30°; with this provision, the cooler the atmosphere the better for the plants.
A paraffin lamp will keep a small greenhouse safe, and at a pinch the boxes of cuttings may be stored in attics or on window-sills.

There are many named kinds of “Geraniums”; but for outdoor growing good specimens of simple white, pink and scarlet are the best.
An excellent way of growing the plants is in large pots or wooden tubs.
If good rich soil be supplied, and watering be judicious, they will flower most satisfactorily thus.
The tubs and pots may, of course, stand on gravel walks, steps or paved yards, and provide bloom where it could not be grown in ordinary beds.
Paraffin casks, sawn in two, charred inside and painted out, make excellent receptacles; after the summer display is over, they may be filled with wallflowers or forget-me-nots for the following spring.
The tubs should have a dozen holes bored in the bottom, and should have a two-inch layer of stones, broken brick and potsherd to afford drainage.

The “Regal” or “Show” Pelargoniums are more fitted for greenhouse culture; they may be used for pots and window boxes.
The “Ivy-leaved” tribe is a climber, which in southern latitudes, such as Devon or Cornwall, will clothe a house wall, and survive an ordinary winter.
In less kindly climes it may be allowed to ramble as far up a wall as it can in one season, or it may be planted in the open and made to climb a framework of sticks.
It is propagated by cuttings made in the same way as those of the Zonal kinds.

The variegated-leaf Pelargoniums, with bands of chocolate, yellow and white on the green leaves, are grown for their foliage as well as their flowers.

It is easy, though seldom done, to raise Pelargoniums from seed. Sow in boxes of sandy soil in a moderate hot-bed in March, and treat as half-hardy annuals.
The results will probably be somewhat mixed, but some fine flowers may be obtained amongst the number.