{"id":2495,"date":"2018-08-20T06:30:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T14:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2018-08-20T06:30:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T14:30:34","slug":"geraniums-gone-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/geraniums-gone-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Geraniums Gone Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Geraniums<\/a>
Geraniums can and should be liberated from pots and window boxes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life is full of rules.\u00a0 Some, like \u201cno wearing white after Labor Day\u201d, arrived via well-meaning mothers and grandmothers.\u00a0 Others are rules that we impose on ourselves.\u00a0 One of the garden rules that has lurked in the back of my mind forever is \u201cgeraniums belong in pots\u201d.<\/p>\n

The geraniums I deal with most often are the hardy types that can live year-round in the garden.\u00a0 They are wonderful perennials and the range is so large that you can find a hardy geranium for just about any situation.\u00a0\u00a0 You can also grow hardy geraniums in pots, but most of them time, their feet are firmly planted in beds and borders.<\/p>\n

Right now I am thinking of pelargoniums–botanically Pelargonium x hortorum–the traditional fluffy-headed creatures that we have all grown in pots and window boxes forever.\u00a0 They are floriferous, reliable and come in just about every color, excluding true blues.<\/p>\n

I was out walking in my suburban neighborhood not long ago and I spotted something much, much more antithetical to the suburban ethos than wearing white after Labor Day.\u00a0 Passing a front flower bed I saw white geraniums planted in a border.\u00a0 There was not a pot in sight and the geraniums were cavorting with all the aplomb of the other perennials in the landscape.\u00a0 Situated at the front of a sunny border, the white globes and lobed green leaves were alternated with plantings of low-growing variegated euonymus.<\/p>\n

This combination told me that the gardener was sophisticated.\u00a0 The euonymus is evergreen and interesting in all four seasons.\u00a0 The geranium is tender and cannot survive cold winters, but in the growing season, it flowers often and abundantly.\u00a0 The pure white blooms were a nice contrast with the busy variegated foliage of the shrub.\u00a0 The whole thing looked effortless, cool and inviting, even on a day when the temperature was over ninety and the heat index should have been rated \u201cH\u201d for hellacious.<\/p>\n

I thought about the geranium\/low evergreen combination.\u00a0 Any of the pink geraniums, either bright or soft pastel, would look equally good interspersed with \u2018Blue Rug\u2019 juniper or Juniperus horizontalis wilsonii.\u00a0 \u2018Blue Rug\u2019 creeps along the ground, covering territory and blocking weeds.\u00a0 Most of the pink geraniums have just a bit of blue in their color profiles, making them a perfect foil for the blue-gray of the juniper.\u00a0 This combo planting strategy would work especially well with new juniper specimens that have not yet had time to fill much space.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once established, both juniper and geraniums sip, rather than gulp, water which is a plus in dry periods.<\/p>\n

You could do the same kind of pairing with lavender, which requires similar free-draining soil, good air circulation and lots of sunshine.\u00a0 The combination would be spectacular no garden varmint in the world that would try and eat it.\u00a0 Catmint, with its equally blue-gray leaves would work as well.<\/p>\n

Of course, in warm winter climates, people are much more likely to grow pelargoniums in regular flower beds, because the plants can survive for a year or two\u2014sometimes more\u2014with little attention other than deadheading and occasional haircuts to keep the plants from becoming \u201cleggy\u201d and unattractive.\u00a0 I remember reading an article by Irish novelist and gardener Frank Ronan about growing pelargoniums in his California garden.\u00a0 Unlike the tidy Irish and English geraniums that he was used to, the California specimens sprawled with wild abandon, revealing their true natures.\u00a0 I think he found that behavior very typically American.<\/p>\n

All of the above combinations would be easy to care for.\u00a0 Most people treat geraniums as annuals, digging them up and composting the plants after the first hard frost.\u00a0 Thrifty gardeners have long taken stem cuttings from their geraniums in fall, dipping the cut ends in rooting hormone and potting them up, thereby providing a fresh supply in the spring.\u00a0 You can do it either way, depending on time and inclination.<\/p>\n

If you fancy the combination of low-growing evergreens and pelargoniums, you can also extend the bloom season by planting tulips when you remove the geraniums in the fall.\u00a0 Pulling out the geraniums loosens the soil, allowing you to plop three to five tulips in each geranium space.\u00a0 The tulips come up in the spring, delighting the eye.\u00a0 When they finish blooming and the leaves start to turn brown, you can lift the bulbs and save or discard.\u00a0 Lifting in this way allows you to plant new or overwintered geraniums in the vacated space.<\/p>\n

Like most free-blooming plants, geraniums like regular feeding during the growing season.\u00a0 You can do this with commercial fertilizer, diluted according to package directions.\u00a0 If you overwinter the plants, do not fertilize, as you and they need some down time.<\/p>\n

When I think about it, the evergreen\/pelargonium combination would also be an interesting way to edge conventional rose beds.\u00a0 When you promote geranium liberation, there is no end to the garden possibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is full of rules.\u00a0 Some, like \u201cno wearing white after Labor Day\u201d, arrived via well-meaning mothers and grandmothers.\u00a0 Others are rules that we impose on ourselves.\u00a0 One of the garden rules that has lurked in the back of my mind forever is \u201cgeraniums belong in pots\u201d. The geraniums I deal with most often are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[274,863,64,65,1930,1931],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-container-gardening","tag-garden-design","tag-geraniums","tag-pelargoniums","tag-tender-annuals","tag-tender-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2497,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}