How to Propagate Pelargoniums

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Propagate Pelargoniums
		March - May. Propagate plants that have been overwintered in the greenhouse to create new ones for summer. Buy new plants for the greenhouse and propagate. Click here to compare and buy different varieties of Pelargonium and Geraniums available in the UK. August - October. Take cuttings and bring indoors. Left outside, these colourful bedding plants will be killed by the hard frosts of winter. Time spent saving them will be well rewarded and you can increase your stock at the same time! Next year as well as bedding plants, they will be useful for hanging baskets, window boxes, patio planters and pots.
	June - July. Buy pelargoniums to plant out. Click here to see and compare different varieties of Pelargonium available in the UK. If friends or relatives have plants you have been admiring during the summer, ask for cuttings. If you are taking the cuttings home, put them into a polythene bag and keep them in the shade and away from direct heat. The cuttings will last several hours this way. If they are slightly limp when you get home revive them by spraying them with water.


	Taking the cuttings.
	The cutting can be rooted in 87 cm (3½ in.) or 12.5 cm (5 in) pots or a deep seed tray, filled with an equal mixture of peat and sharp sand, or an equal mixture of peat and perlite. Take a cutting from a plant by cutting off a stem at least 10 cm (4 in.) long (photo 1). If the stem has a flower head, remove it. Also remove all leaves except the top three or four from the cutting (photo 2).							1. Take cutting from stem.			2. Remove lower leaves.
	The next step of preparing the cutting is the most important one, since pelargonuum stems are liable to rot if they do not root in a short period of time.
	To enable the cutting to root quickly, trim it back to just below a node (photo 3). The node should be the first spare one below the leaves left on the stem. Here a good clean cut should be made with a sharp knife or scalpel leaving no stub below the node, nor cutting into it. Remove the tiny stiplues (little half moon-like leaves) on the remaining nodes (photo 4).				3. Make a clean cut below a node.					4. Remove tiny stiplues

	Dip the bottom of the cutting in hormone rooting powder to hasten the rooting process. Use a dibber to make a hole in the rooting medium and then insert the cutting. Firm the cutting in with your fingers (photo 5). Insert large cuttings into separate 87 cm (3½ in.) or round the edge of larger pot. Smaller cuttings can be planted round the edge of a 87 cm (3½ in.) or larger pot. The cuttings can also be set out in rows at 5 cm (2 in.) intervals in a seed tray. Label the pot or seed tray with the name of the variety and water the cuttings. The compost should be kept moist at all times but not waterlogged.							5. Firm in cutting.			6. Water the cutting.
	The cuttings will root, within a few weeks, in a warm position in the greenhouse or on a windowledge shaded from direct sunlight. For quick rooting, provide bottom heat by using a heated propagator.
	Pelargonium Salmoneum.			If the plants have made good growth by late spring early summer, they can be potted up. Those plants that are several to a pot can be potted into individual 87 cm (3½ in.) pots, and those in separate 87 cm (3½ in.) pots, potted up to 12.5 cm (5 in) pots of John Innes No.2 compost. The plants should be potted up as soon as they are root bound. When the plants are 15 cm (6 in.) tall. pinch out the growing tips. This action will ensure that the plant produces many side shoots lower down the plant which will branch out to give a bushy plant with plenty of blooms. Pelargoniums can be planted out at the end of May in the garden when all risk of frost is gone, after hardening them off in a cold frame or on the patio.
	Autumn and Winter Care. The pelargonium plants should be kept at a temperature greater than 5 degrees C over the winter period to prevent them being killed by frost.
	New Book: The Passion for Pelargoniums, click here for UK or here for USA
			The book Geraniums and Pelargoniums by John Feltwell. Pelargoniums and geraniums belong to the same family Geraniaceae. Pelargoniums make fine houseplants, however few geraniums are grown indoors. Read about the similarities and differences in this fascinating book as well as how to to select, grow, propagate the different varieties. The book details over 328 plants and has over 250 full-color illustrations. Buy the book at Amazon, click here for UK or here for USA.

			The book 1001 Pelargoniums by Hazel Key is a complete in-depth guide to growing pelargoniums, It also shows the vast range of cultivars, species and varieties of pelargoniums available. The descriptions of the plants are arranged alphabetically with superb photographs of plants and flowers by Martin A Smith. There are checklists where the plants are arranged by colour, type, flower size, flowering season and growing requirements. Buy the book at Amazon, click here for UK or here for USA.
Click here to see the different varieties of Pelargoniums and Geraniums.
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