Geranium Blog

The Elegant Prince of Orange

Prince of Orange is an orange scented geranium with a sumptuous, upright habit. A bit of pruning will be in order soon to keep this one nice and round, but it seems to want to grow that way naturally.

How do P. 'Orange' and P. 'Prince of Orange' compare? Orange wins out on strength of scent, heat tolerance, size of flowers and length of blooming time. Prince of Orange is an excellent scented geranium choice, but Orange is just that much better. The only thing to do is grow them both.

Orange Geranium Growth Habit

Orange Geranium - my very favorite, you may know - has a graceful sprawling growth habit. It looks really nice in an elevated position, like a plant stand, where it can perform for all to see.

Little Round Eggplants

Lemon Scented Geranium Roundup

The lemon scented geraniums generally have nice white flowers with some purple veining. Often the three lower petals are long and narrow, giving the flowers a primitive wildflower look. Spring Park Lemon puts on a showy and long-lasting display.

The leaves of the crispums are all small. This is a common trait of desert plants. All varieties of Pelargonium crispum that I have grown are tolerant of the heat although they appreciate some shade during the midsummer. Certainly they are worthwhile for gardeners in the desert Southwest.

Variegated Prince Rupert and His Evil Twin

Varigated Prince Rupert is a nicely branching upright bush. It is a very slow grower, but quite charming. The little green shoot coming up agressively from the roots is a reversion. A reversion can be assumed to be the unmutated original plant that the varigated form developed from. Therefore, the all green one is regular Prince Rupert. Both of the princes have a light lemon scent.

Small Plant Big Impact

Spring Park Lemon has just the loveliest manners. It forms a neat, upright, well-rounded little bush. The leaves are crispum-shaped, yet a bit larger in size than those of P. crispum. I think of Spring Park as an excellent windowsill plant because it can stay in a smaller pot and maintains a compact shape.

Pure Gold

Golden Lemon Crispum has a yellow border around the edge of each leaf that gives the whole plant an interesting golden color. Like the other crispums, Golden Lemon has long upright branches. It seems to keep a very neat appearance.

A Lemony Free Spirit

Crispum Minor has a free spirit appearance. Its growth habit is upright and the super-teensy leaves don't seem to weigh down the branches much. I must confess that this one of my favorite scented geraniums: heat tolerant, a vigorous bloomer and always fun to look at.

Fingerbowl Lemon Only Looks Dainty

Fingerbowl Lemon has smaller leaves than P. crispum. It has a tall upright habit and it grows like a rocket.

A Look At Growth Habit

Today I'm starting a series of posts on the growth habits of the various scented geraniums. How many times have you looked at a plant and thought, "Is it supposed to do that?" So - we'll start with the lemon scented geraniums.

P. crispum is the plain lemon geranium. It has an upright growth habit, but when a branch gets too long, it starts to lay down and new upright branches grow from the branch that is now horizontal. If the plant were in the ground, that horizontal branch would likely root and thus it would spread. The plant in the picture is now flat like a sail. I'm going to prune off about 2/3 of the long horizontal branch in hopes of encouraging more rounded growth.

The Pickin's

Grackle Update

Baby Grack has been with me for about six weeks now. He has turned out to be a really fun pet. He is quite smart and loves to play. He follows me around the house, either walking, flying or riding on my head. I fed him a caterpillar this week. It was a satisfying experience for both of us.

Pepper-Eggplant Mystery Continues

A couple of weeks ago I wrote derisively about some Brazilian Aji Peppers that looked suspiciously like eggplant. Now it has produced some fruit and I must admit, the fruit is the correct shape. On the other hand, silvery-green eggplant-ish leaves and the fact that these plants are constantly crawling with ants, continue to make me think eggplant. There are several varieties of eggplant that produce 2-3" round fruit and I'll bet that's what this turns out to be.

WooHoo! An Almost Red Tomato!

This is my favorite variety of tomato for desert gardening. It is a reliable producer of large (1 1/2" to 2") grape tomatoes. High temperatures hardly seem to trouble these plants.

Erodium reichardii 'Rubrum'

Erodium is a close relative of the Pelargoniums and Geraniums. E. r. 'Rubrum' is a low-growing plant with tiny scalloped, hairy leaves. It likes to grow in the shade during the summer.