Tuesday, September 15, 2015

THE LAST GERANIUM

                                          Okay, summer has been fun.
                                          Time to stuff what's left of it into paper compost bags.
                                          And possibly, just possibly save a bit of it for next year.
                                           Everything is  starting to stagnate in the cold nights.
                                               3 degrees Celsius  ( 37.4 F.) is nothing to sneeze at.
                                                                Oh the Brrrr of it alll.
                      This year, I tossed out some geraniums, but tried to save as many as I could.
                                                They are at the right stage. These ones at the front of the house
               I ripped out of the dirt, clipped them back and shook the dirt of their little root feet.
                                            There are a few methods for saving geraniums.
                                                Some  you can keep in paper bags. It's okay.
                                                        Not great. But sometimes works.
                                             The way I'm going to save these ones is to bunch them up.
                                           Tie their gnarly roots with twine.....
                                               and hang on the wall of the garage.
                                                      Covered with paper. It will be cold.
                                   But by march there should be new roots peeking out from the old ones.
                                    Then it's just a matter of stuffing their feet into little pots of dirt.
                                           Giving some water and watch and wait.
                                              Geraniums are quite hardy. Not overly glamorous.
                                                 But they  exist quite well in a forced dormant state.
                    Unlike Spencer, who still has a cat nap on the chair we leave out for him when he visits.
                         My favourite way to keep geraniums is to save them in single pots. In the bathroom upstairs, on the ledges of the tub that is never used, except to babysit plants over the winter.
                                  This year I was able to repot , clip down, about 15 geraniums.
                                      They will sit in the light all winter long.
                                           And start putting out shoots by December.
                                          Or sooner. I tended to save mostly ivy geraniums.
                                       And some of those beautiful lavender ones that are so hard to find.
                                           The mountain outside the window is naked and bare.
                                                    Waiting for the its first snowfall.
                    And the last of the flowerings, the Rudbekia, is even withering away in the cold nights.
 But the sky is  bright. And  sunsets better than anything you'd see in the summer. Everything  tucked away for next year. Down to the very last geranium.....

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