Blooming Geraniums

 

I have been overwintering geraniums for most of the 49 years we have been married and living in this old farmhouse. I wasn't always successful. One time I phoned in to a radio talk show asking for advice. They laughed at me when I said my geraniums just sort of wilted and drooped in the pots. I was told they were in transplant shock. Okay. Now I know.

My mother used to pull hers up and hang them upside down in her basement. I tried that. They might still be hanging down there after all these years. This house has a full basement with dirt floor and hanging pie shelf and cobwebs that would make the Munsters proud. We have often joked about starting a grow-op down there but there are no windows for light. Yes, I know we could put in hydroponic lights, but that would require a plan and follow through.

I used to plant them in the ground for the summer then pot them up to bring inside. It turns out that you have to water them sometimes. Got that. But they still drooped. Then I read a great suggestion in a  Country Woman magazine about 25 years ago.   Pot them then remove ALL the leaves and buds, put them in a sunny window and start watering them. More than once. The ones that did the best were the ones on the window in front of my computer. I poured what was left of the water I was dinking into the pot and was rewarded with flowers. I think I was on to something. 

This red geranium is one of 10 I bought from a girl about 25 years ago as a fundraiser for a school trip. I still have 2 of them. 

At first, I potted them in small pots then as they grew larger, I put them in bigger pots. Instead of planting them into the ground each spring, we put the whole pot in then brought the whole pot into the house in the fall. I have discovered that geraniums are not so particular about the temperatures, but really like direct sunlight. The ones in south windows have fared the best. Those on east or west windows get tall and scraggly but no flowers. 

In the spring, I put the pots in the flower beds in places that have no bulbs. Then in the fall when they are taken out of the ground, I plant tulip and daffodil bulbs in the vacated holes. Saturday we planted about 300 bulbs. There should be magnificent colour in the spring. But we have to do winter first. That could arrive here anytime since it is the second week of November, but we are still enjoying wonderful sunny warm days for now. 

And Ava is now a teenager. How did that happen?

Blessings,

Chris 

And I got almost no stitching done this week again. 

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