Sunday, March 22

Cutting it

Last year on one of our many visits to local garden centres we spotted some pelargoniums that were being sold off. We needed something to prettify the summer house and so we decided to buy some. We also bought a couple for a pot on the patio.




The patio pot was taken into the greenhouse for over winter and the others were just left in the summer house. They all survived so I decided that the time had come to cut them back.
The benefits of cutting back are twofold - it rejuvenates the parent plant to stop it becoming leggy and it produces cutting material.
The trimmings were tidied up. Any dead leaves and flowers were removed and the pieces were shortened by cutting just below a leaf node, (the area where the leaves join the stem). All the leaf stipules - the small leafy bits at the base of the leaf stems - that would otherwise be buried were removed and most of the leaves.
Each plant produced between four and six cuttings.
To provide good drainage I like to place cuttings in a mix of half compost and half vermiculite.
The cuttings from each variety were placed around the edge if a small pot and placed in the house on a windowsill.
The compost will be kept slightly damp as pelargoniums don't like to be too wet.
The parent plants look rather sorry but should soon start to grow away.
A digression:



Copyright: Origieggl post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

20 comments:

  1. I so love them, but for some reason they never grow ever well here. So I've given up on them.

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    1. I wonder why that is, Daphne. Is it that you can't keep them over winter?

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  2. Good luck with your cuttings Sue. They look good.

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    1. In a way I hope that they don't all grow, Alain

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  3. I shall be doing the very same with mine soon, they've come through winter in the greenhouse well.

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    1. We've been lucky that winter was mild, Jo.

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  4. Very nice tutorial - I love starting plants from cuttings & did that quite a bit many years ago.

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    1. It's always worth having a go, Margaret my sister has a large magnolia that came from a cutting from mine.

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  5. Pelargoniums were the first things I ever took cuttings of I think. I had trailing pink ones, and I kept them on my bedroom windowsill when I was little. I still love the trailing ones and their waxier leaves.

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    1. I think that they are one of the easiest cuttings CJ

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  6. i'm sharing this on our Facebook page. Everybody loves a freebie! That smiley sun does look familiar 😊

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    1. They certainly do, Bellinda. The sun is saying cheese for the cameras.

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  7. I took lots of cuttings from my pelargoniums last autumn, they all took and now I have scores of them in the greenhouse! Gosh, fab eclipse pic....not a patch on mine though!!!xxx

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    1. But your eclipse was so stunning, Dina. That is the problem when all the cuttings root, already I am worrying what I will do with them.

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  8. Hope that your pelargonium cuttings fare well Sue. I would like to grow them but sadly if I come into close contact with the foliage I wheeze :( A great photo of the eclipse. You must have been pleased to experience such a sight. We were in a slightly drizzly and murky Cumbria where it just seemed to go duller for short time.

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    1. That is a shame, Anna. I must admit I was expecting it to go darker

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  9. Funny I just worked on my geraniums today, before I even saw your post. Such pretty colors.

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  10. Hope the pelargonium grow well Sue! They look so pretty!

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