Slipping my geraniums is a task I thoroughly enjoy at this time of year when my green thumbs begin to twitch. My geranium plants are like old friends, and as I work with them, I fondly remember the people from whom I got many of the plants. I enjoy their pungent scent and marvel at how such an old standby can still bring me joy and provide beauty to both my indoor garden and outdoor landscape.
By March, the geraniums, including many coloured leaf zonals, several scented pelargoniums, and my prized tulip geranium have all grown bushy and tall after having been cut back severely before they were brought into the sunroom in the fall. They are in full bloom and one downside to taking slips now is sacrificing all the lovely blooms and buds.
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In early March, I take slips from these parent plants, each now sporting a large number of healthy stems from which to harvest slips. I use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of the stems, giving me slips that are about 20 centimetres in length.
After letting the slips callous over for a few hours, I plant them in damp perlite, or sometimes a sterile soilless mix. During this whole process, I ensure that I label the slips accurately.
Sometimes I use rooting hormone, but I haven’t found that it makes a great deal of difference with my success rate. I put the containers of slips in my light garden, being sure to keep the medium moist, and in about a month, the slips will have developed roots.
I then plant each rooted cutting in soilless mix in a four inch pot and place the pots under the lights. I begin to fertilize weekly with a half strength 20-20-20 soluble fertilizer. I let the soil surface dry out between waterings, which doesn’t take long in the warm environment of my light garden, the basement furnace room.
In April, I move the plants to the sunroom windows to make room in the light garden for growing annual seedlings. By May, the geranium plants are setting bud and coming into bloom.
Outdoors, I use my geraniums in containers. I place pots of scented geraniums on a shelf near the sunroom door where their aroma can be enjoyed. I use zonals, including my tulip geraniums, in pots by themselves or in mixed containers.
Geraniums like lots of sun. They are easy-care plants that flourish when given adequate moisture and nutrients and should be deadheaded regularly to remove spent blooms.
