Geranium Blog

Geranium Blog Set For Wild Gardening Frenzy

I'm completely manic with new geranium projects this spring:

• Set up fluorescent light for rooting and seed growing
• Super tough scented geraniums - I'm developing a list of scented geraniums that gardeners in desert cities can count on. Stay tuned for these sizzling recommendations.
• My little online store is now operational. Drop by Sunshine Hill Gardens for scented geranium seeds and cuttings. I've got canna rhizomes, too!
• Scented geranium leaf gallery - 'nuff said.
• In the name of better organization, some of the articles on Scented Geraniums will be moving to the Geranium Blog over the next few days.
• And how about an update on Gracie the Grackle?
• Plus more, more, MORE preying mantids, deformed vegetables, desert tortoise antics, new scented geraniums and lovely pictures.

Tournament of Ornamental Peppers: Chilly Chili

Chilly Chili is much taller than Medusa. It is just now starting to bloom and make peppers. I think it is showing a lot of promise.

Breaking News Alert - Praying Mantis Sighted in Coconut Geranium

Mantis Mania returned to Sunshine Hill Gardens with the sighting of the Spring's first praying mantis. And he's so big: already an inch and a half long! No doubt this guy has been munching on lots of tasty bugs.

Last year, I put out two praying mantis egg cases and was lucky enough to see the hatchling mantids emerge from one of them. This year, I put out two more, but didn't see them hatch so it really made me happy to see one today.

Biggest Praying Mantis Ever!

Megamantis

This is by far the largest praying mantis I have ever seen in my yard - about 5 inches long! She was hiding in the cannas, no doubt feasting on lots of obnoxious bugs. One of the nice things about praying mantids is that they will stay put while you run to get the camera and bring everyone in the family out to look.

Getting Back to Normal

Praying Mantis on Pelargonium 'Lime'

This week I've been moving the potted plants out of the jungle on the side patio and back to their normal location on the back patio. Grouping the pots as we did gave the spiders a lovely place to build their webs, so all the pots were cleaned off with a wisk broom. All the plants needed some grooming, too.

I was delighted to find a particularly plump praying mantis on the Lime Geranium. Is it too much to hope it's a female soon to lay eggs?

Mantis Update

Praying mantis at work

I was deadheading the roses this morning and this fine praying mantis hopped out of one of the bushes and onto the side of the house. It is about 2 1/2 inches long - much larger than the ones I saw a few weeks ago. Hopefully that means she's eating well! I believe it came from the mantis egg case I hung in the Blaze climbing rose.

Praying Mantis Update

Just 12 days after hatching, I sighted one of the baby praying mantids - and without the camera at hand! Already at one inch long it was double its original length. Its body looked as thin as a thread, but probably not for long. While I was looking at it, it seized a tiny bug and gobbled it down! We hadn't seen any since the day after hatching, but I suspect that if we saw one, many more are hiding close by!

UPDATE 5/8/06: Okay, now I got a picture. The little mantis came back at the same time in the evening. He is upside down. The dark dot is his head and he is holding his 'hands' out front in the 'praying' position.

Praying Mantis juvenile, 1 inch long

The Mantids Emerge

Hatchling praying mantids
emerge from their egg case

Several weeks ago I picked up a carton of 2 praying mantis egg cases at the nursery. I hung one on a tomato plant and another in a climbing rose. This afternoon I was lucky enough to observe the hatchlings as they emerged from one of the egg cases! They were greyish and about 1/2" long. According to the package, 100-200 of these insects can come from one egg case.

These guys are superb natural pest control. And they are an especially good deal for gardeners: The praying mantis tends to hang around close to where they hatched, while lady bugs tend to wander off.

A newly hatched praying mantis
starts hunting for food