Overwintering generaniums - advice please

Thats great! Thank you very much for all the advice on here everyone!! Hopefully next spring i shall have lots of geraniums!!

 

Busybee. Although Pelargoniums and Geraniums are related, in essence they are pretty different. Once you have seen a few, especially side by side, the difference will be quite clear.

The most obvious difference is the flower shape.



Geraniums, like the one above have single open flat flowers. And there are often darker radial lines from the edge to the centre.



Pelagoniums, above, have multiple flowers cramed together in a head, which usually prevents any individual opening out flat. Pelagoniums don't have the radial lines.

The colour is a give away too. Pelagoniums are often in very bright garish shades of orange and red, whilst Geraniums are quite restrained and tasteful in pastel shades of blue, pink and purple.

The growth pattern is also differant. Geraniums tend to be weavers, ie long stems that weave through other plants, or mound forming, making a dome that can easily be three feet across. Pelargoniums, by comparison are upright and stumpy, often getting thick stems.

Then there is the smell. I can't think that Geraniums smell of anything. But Pelargoniums have a very distinctive smell.

 

Some of the geraniums ( cranesbills ) do smell - G.macrorrhizum has a strong smell reminiscent of eau de cologne and G. dalmaticum always reminds me of oranges
but none of them have that pelargonium smell that so many object to


An interesting thing about pelargoniums is that untill relatively recently they were all propagated from cuttings, then all changed to seed as a cheaper and more controllable method of commercially producing large quantities.
There are still some wonderful varieties of geraniums which are only grown from cuttings which have coloured foliage, distinct flower shapes or dwarf habit, obtainable from a few specialist nurseries- but probably not for much longer

 

Thanks Lovage - as I wrote that about Geranium smell, it was late at night and there was no way I was going outside to smell them. But you have encouraged me to try - that is if it ever stops raining. :D

Interesting about Pelargoniums from seed. As there are so many different, they are clearly cultivated hybrids - but how do they get the seeds to come true? I assumed they were micropropagated.

 

Thank you Peter and lovage - that is very useful info.
I have bought myself a little mini greenhouse today so i'm quite excited about propogating some of the plants i have!