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Mystery climbing gernaium
A friend of mine came round today with a geranium that she said is called Apple Blossom. She said it is a climbing variety and climbs up her grandmothers walls.
I can't find anything on a plant like this. Any ideas ?
She said to put it near a sunny wall and it will just grow ?
Any ideas ?
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Some can become very tall but climbing suggests twining or clinging which they won't do
That's a pelagonium
In the sticks near Peterborough
Never heard of a climbing pelargonium Peanuts but perhaps it likes the site it's put in so grows to a good size. Could it be that it's been in hanging baskets so she's made the assumption it's a climber because it's been high up? If there were other shrubs or containers below it, that might have given an illusion of height.
I'm sure someone will know a lot more than me about it though
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have seen a pelagonium that grew up the wall and half way across the ceiling but it was no more a climbing plant than a tree is. Just tall
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hmm okay thanks. How do I look after these ?
It wasn't mine Peanuts. Just like any other pelagonium I should think but don't ask me what that is. I only do hardy plants
In the sticks near Peterborough
There are some old varieties of pelagonium (used to be called geraniums) which grew tall and could be trained on wires up the inside brick walls of conservatories. orangeries etc - they were kept frost-free over the winter and never cut back (although trained and pruned like a climber). A friend who was head gardener at a stately home had care of some beauties which probably dated back to Victorian times.
I'm sure there are the descendants of those old varieties in many gardens and on many windowsills. It sounds as if you may have one of them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Apple blossom is a double pelargonium. It gets a bit lanky, but it's not a climber.
http://www.allwoods.net/product_p/g868.htm
I have Apple blossom but I dont find it at all hardy where I live. It hates the wet and if rain gets on it the flowers just turn brown, its always kept in the conservatory.
I also have Apple Blossom, not a climber and mine is not tall this is the second year I've grown it, I do grow mine outside during the summer and yes the blossom does tend to go brown but you can pick this of.
If you have the time, have a read of this extract from The Confessions of an Old Gardener Sept 11. 1851 written by Donald Beaton http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Heredity/Beaton/BeatonConfessions1851.html
In it he talks about the amazingly decorative conservatory walls in 'aristocratic houses' and makes plans to recreate this in a way accessible to most ordinary gardeners. In the last paragraph he talks about training geraniums to cover walls as I saw in the stately home where my friend was head gardener.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.