Geranium (new shrub 32)

Another perennial geranium Fran, the white bits are old flower stems. Looks like it must have bloomed very well. Just groom out the stalks, bit of feed and it will soon bloom.

Agree with Dorjac.

thanks Dorjac and Karen.

I did remoe the dead stems, tugging very gently in case they were still attached! I've got at least half a dozen of these around the back, I did wonder how big they'd get. now i can find out, thanks!

Well, they could be anything from absolutely tiny (which yours are not) to a max of about 3' high. Some will flower all summer, but others are a one trick plant. Time will tell Fran!

wonder if they're all the same sub-genre; if not, will be ariety all round. but will have to wait to see.

The biggest is about two feet high at the moment and baout three feet acros. the others are varying sizes short of that

Yes, I'll be surprised if they are all the same. The leaves look different on the two you've put on today.

I'll have to go back and check, I hadn't looked tht closely at any of them! I'll try sample leaves from all the plants I can find,a nd compare them

It maybe that a previous garden keeper has replanted slips of a geranium they find satisfactory. Say compact. Good flowers. Nice colour etc and not too invasive. They all have slightly different leaves Fran. So leaf comparison a good idea, as sometimes the flowers can be very similar in colour.

Good idea Fran. I used to have a good book on them, but I don't think I still have it.

possibly Dorjac; it's what anyone would do with a favrourite plant. just need to know they won't take over the whole space.

I've got rid of so many garden and plant ID books, Karen: a lot of them had too-small print, and others were too big and heavy, made it hard work to lift them high enough to be useful. lol i might start my own "leaf collection" album

Well the one you illustrate with spent flower stems Fran is pretty mature and compact at the same time and a very good flowerer too. Best way to control them is to knock them right back, leaves and all, when the flowering is over and before seeding, fertilise, and they will come back and perhaps flower again. As well as that some soils favour certain thugs like my corydalis and allium cowanei but might not bother the person next door! Geraniums don't go on the rampage in our garden like they did in my cousins sandy soil in Cheshire.

how far should it be cut back, Dorjac? leave a few inches, or more, or less?

lol I'll try it on one plant, and see the difference between it and others (if i can remember which one I cut back!)

I've not looked at next door, etiher side, lol spend my time tyring not to accidentally look at their graden when i look at my plants on the edges!

Just resting with the iPad Fran after cutting back the jostaberries and trimming round a Choisya getting too spready. If it's a mature geranium you can scalp it and it will shrug it off as long as it is nurtured and welcomed back into action. I planted Rozanne geranium a plant that was voted fave of the year RHS. However that plant can be quite frisky too! I put in a hunk of a plant like kniphofia caulescens and only one of three growing well.

oh, that's a shame, Dorjac - I know they say two out of three isn't bad, but one out of three?

you sound like yo've been busy! jostaberries? lol do'nt tell me, let me look them up - another learning experience!

I've been a bit lazy on looking up plant care: got the links, but need to put everything in one place for each plant - how to,a nd when, and such, then i don't need to find links for each aspect.

I've been thinking about raised beds, and thinking of putting one of the geraniums in that, as a test pilot; maybe will cut one back as you suggest and see how it goes before trying it on the others. if I do that to the raised-bed one i'll know which is which!

Just trying out the new crazy paved circle and the iPad at the bottom of the garden. Lovely day not too warm. Just done a bit of brushing out front and down the sideway too. Next door have gone off to Cromer to their chalet. Good weather for such a trip. OH not feeling too good today, so he's gone back to bed for now. The iPad is slower here 50 or 60feet from the router but not too bad. I'm really pleased I had this crazy paved as I'm determined to make use of it and my green 2 piece lounger.

sounds like you had a really useful "lazy" day! lol trying to picture you relcining on your lounger in your new circle, typing.

Sorry to hear about OH, hope it was only a temprorary downswing.

For quite a while there were no sirens, no dog barking, just distant bumpy music, no man smoking out of his 3rd floor window. No noisy trucks collecting rubbish, no strimmers or mowings going on- quite amazing for a Sunday. There is silence at the Romanian habitat in the new four bedder next door but one. No squealing child in their garden, no BBQ smoke. No bird song either but my hearing aids not in! Loads of con trails in the sky as they jet off to far flung places or do an overflight high up. Me in the magic circle with my bit of high tech nonsense in my lap.

you must have cast a spell to "close the circle" and shut out evetything, or spread it wider and stopped it happening in the first place!

I had a small fire on Mayday, but waited until dark, it was uncanny how littl enoise there was; the hum of traffic in the disance, but nothing nearer: no cars, no music, no birds, no breeze rustling the leaves. I was out there about an hour and the only thing that told me that I wasn't the only person alive on the planet (apart from distant traffic) was that I could see the lights in people's back rooms if I looked oer the fence.

treasure the magic, it don't happen often!