I have a love/hate relationship with geraniums. I love their bright colors, their tidy form and their sometimes interesting foliage. I dislike the constant cleaning involved to keep them looking their best.
I consider geraniums old lady flowers and I think many modern gardeners agree. It doesn't help their image that the original variety name was Martha Washington.
My first experience with geraniums was when I worked
Thompson-Hills nursery. Mrs. Miller, the owner, loved
geraniums and bought hundreds of them. My job was
to groom them - remove the yellow leaves and old
flowers. I did this every day, day after day. It was worse
than my job popping popcorn all summer. At least popcorn
smells good. Not so geraniums.
And so my distaste for geraniums started then. But finally, this year, some 25 years after my Thompson-Hills days, I have finally warmed up a bit to geraniums. Enough so that for the first time I actually purchased geraniums for myself. I have been looking for a spot of color in my newly planted pots and the salmon geraniums looked like the best option. Any I really like them. I can't imagine having lots of geraniums in my plantings, but I may try a few more in my containers for a spot of cheery color.
Another gardening friend of mine was stating that a geraniums doesn't need bee pollinators and I was wondering is it because the flower is so old. I love them, I grown them indoors and out doors and bring my geraniums in at the end of summer. It's so nice seeing them grow right now and bloom when there's 5 inches of snow outdoors. But do you know anything about their history? They have a smell so why don't bees want them.
ReplyDelete