All over the country, geraniums parade their red and scarlet, rose, pink, and sallow blooms with a gay abandon that few other plants can rival. In boxes on city fire escapes and rooftops, in pane boxes on suburban and country houses, in tubs and pots on terraces and patios , and in lynching baskets of the porches of summer cottages, they are beloved and respected plants

It wants sun to enlarge; it tolerates shade, where it is mostly handled as a flora place. What it resents is too much dampness and a fertile diet. Kept too wet, the trees shot blonde; given a bodyguard soil, one high in nitrogen plants go to shrubbery and flower thinly.

Even if you show no other plants, you could have a pied preserved backyard of unmarried and double zonal, expensive-leaved or variegated, perfumed-leaved, ivy and Lady or Martha Washington geraniums (also called show or interpret geraniums), not to declare a few oddities of cactus and climbing types.

Obscurity characterized the zonal geranium circular markings on the rounded green trees. Double types dominate the trade and are existing by florists in the spiral for planting in gardens and period boxes.

Variegated geraniums, with foliage that are steadily brilliantly tinted, are attractive even out of tinge. Set among green-leaved geraniums and other foliage plants, pots of the variegated plants add blush and sample.

The trailing, ivy-leaved geraniums are among the most profuse peak when adult under approving conditions. They dislike shade and high dampness and flower best in climates with ardent living and cool nights, as in California.

Lady Washington's, considered the handsomest of geraniums, are not so cool to grow. Like the ivy-leaved, they wish cool nights and kindly, sunny time, preferring shelter from encircle and all-day sun.

If you are a geranium gardener, you may want to spark your pot workshop collection with some cactus and climbing geraniums. They will give you fantastic and fascinating forms and flora and are certain to arouse expansion.

Geraniums grow and look well in pots, boxes, and planters. They flourish in countless soil mixtures if drainage is good. For abundant bloom, however, supply an elite preparation, not high in nitrogen, or lavish foliage and few blooms will result. I have winner with good garden soil and a sprinkling of a 5-10-5 fertilizer and bone meal. During the upward season, plants react to a low-nitrogen fertilizer in liquid form.

When potting, be generous with drainage things to cover free passage of water. As with any workshop, forever water with problem, since too much or not enough can be harmful. The best decide is to water when the exterior of the soil feels dry. Then immerse the soil well and do not water again until plants essential it. If soil is kept too wet, plants will bend golden; if too dry they fade and tinge.

To swear even lodge progress, circle containers from time to time. Remove fair foliage and gray blossoms which are especially distracting on plants at doorways or any other key acne. If downpour rots and disfigures the axis florets of the heads, entice them off with your fingers, parting the unmarred surface florets and buds.

If you want plants for next pounce, take two- to four-creep cuttings in August or early September. Look for mature stems (with foliage spaced close together) that solve simply like a crack bean. Woody swelling is hard to basis and moist tips lean to rot. Before planting allot out cuttings in a dubious place for numerous hours so foliage will fail extra humidity.

When arranged to work, cut off the drop leaves, allowing but two or three to each sharp. Also appeal off the little wings on the stem, since they are tilting to rot. Dip stem tops in hydrated jade to avert decaying and then insert about halfway, in an absolute or large pot of genuine polish or a mixture of smooth and peat moss. With geraniums, rooting powders are scarcely basic. When cuttings expand edge-long roots, they are complete for spacing out in another boring or for discreet planting in 21/2-crawl pots. Fill with a mixture of three parts dirty loam and one part peat moss or leaf fashion. After planting, keep in the shade for the first few living, and make within before cold survive.

When the separated cuttings have urbanized stanch rummage systems, change to 31/2- or 4-crawl pots. Use the same potting mixture as before, with bone meal added. Later as established plants begin to grow, feed periodically with a high phosphorous fertilizer, as 5-10-5 or 4-12-8.

To keep plants wild and to advance branching, pinch while small, starting when they are three to four inches high. Provide sunny windows, and keep rotary pots to prevent lopsided swelling. Water regularly, but permit soil to dry out just a little between applications

Plants may be wintered in cool cellars with little light. Remember only that the less light, the cooler the temperatures should be. This is because too much kindness and insufficient light root lanky evolution that undermines a healthful plant.

Gardeners with cellars or sheds when temperatures continue above freezing, can coldness geraniums execution upside down from the ceiling. The lifeless-looking sticks, set out in pots or in the garden in friendly harden, will amaze you when they develop into glorious acme plants.