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Is it the end for pelargonium?
Susan O'Meara
Posts: 24
in Plants
Currently overwintering on a cool window sill, one of my pelargoniums looks "different". It has been "mother" to several cuttings over 3 years but there are no green stems now, only woody ones. The leaves keep on coming but are tiny. I pinch these off but no sign ofany new green stems. Is it time to throw it away?
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How about letting the little leaves grow bigger and then using a leaf as a cutting. I have successfully got a new plant from just one leaf in the past.
Thank you Lyn and Cottage Garden Fairy. Will do both suggestions and bin the old plant.
And me too Verdun!
Verdun if you take cuttings they will be just as virus-lanen or virus-free as the 'mother'.
Perhaps if Susan's pelargonium was fed it would look better. Cuttings will grow bushier, perhaps because they are grown in new soil.
It's hungry
Take it out of the pot, shake off as much soil as possible and repot it in fresh compost - I find pelargonioums like John Innes No 2 but any good general purpose compost will do. It will soon become reinvigorated - I know of pelargoniums that have gone on for years and years - they do need feeding though!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Wait for the warmer weather as well as cutting the stem back, if you have not done that already. Even though I have heat in my potting shed, many of my pelargoniums are bare, due to the intense "damp and continuing". Feed it/them and maybe spray the stem/s weekly and I am sure it/they will grow leaves. Some of my plants are decades old and still flower and give good cuttings.
Good Luck!
All responses are impressive,many thanks to all. Will spend some more time on "mother" and see how things go!