Wednesday June 11, 2008
My thumb is brown. At least my geranium thumb. Or maybe it’s color-blind. I don’t know. I only know that I have killed every geranium I bought since we’re married except the very first ones. This is an annual event. I buy geraniums. I bring them home. Six weeks later they are dead or so nearly there I pitch them and let them finish taking their last breath in the woods where I don’t have to be tormented any longer.
Four weeks ago my porch had that “just planted hoping for a great summer” look.
Today the geraniums look like this.
Last year the greenhouse people confirmed my diagnosis. I kept them too wet and they died of a fungus. By the time I saw the tell-tale black spots it was too late to treat them. This year I made SURE I didn’t overwater them. I don’t see fungus. Just brown leaves. And a gazillion teeny brown bugs that scatter everywhere if I move the pots. The other flowers grow. David Lee says plant something else. BUT.I.WANT.GERANIUMS.ON.MY.FRONT.PORCH. They just fit. Please, please someone tell me what I’m doing wrong. Yes they get sun. And no, “hey you just had a baby cut yourself some slack” comments either, please (I told you this happens every year). Geraniums aren’t that hard to grow. Or so I thought. So what’s wrong with me?
well, don’t know what to tell you, but here in the south, they seem to be pretty easy to grow. Do they get afternoon sun? This house we just moved into, the elderly southern lady had some on her front porch which faces the west. So far, from what I’ve seen around here, she seems to have known her flowers and what works best where…..
Have you sprayed them for the bugs? Might be what’s killing them??? I don’t have real much luck with them when it’s really hot. They actually do better if they just get some sun instead of most of the day. It’s prob. not as hot in Va, though…sorry, i’m not much help.
My mom loves geraniums and prob plants 30 or more plants every year. The first thing she does when she plants them is snap all the blooms off….sounds odd I know but she grows the prettiest geraniums around.
Sorry, no idea. The only thing that I can keep alive is impatiens. laugh, laugh. Actually, the hanging pots haven’t been doing too bad this year, but than again, the summers not over. I don’t think I’ll get much planted as far as flowers this year, but I’ll probly be coming to you for advice next year. Maybe even on how to grow geraniums!
i’m the last one to offer advice on flowers. my thumb seems to have the same color you’re complaining about.
so long into the summer i want to pitch all my pots and buy others. grrrrrr!!
i’m so tired from working at the house all day i think i’ll hit the shower and bed at a decent hour tonight! maybe even break a record
have a sleep filled night. i pray liam has a good one and lets mommie get long hours
I can’t offer you any help w/ geraniums, either (sorry). It’s the petunias that I’m killing off this year, and I’ve never, EVER had trouble w/ them before.
Have you tried Google? It’s amazing what can be found on there…maybe you could get some ideas there for happy geraniums. Good luck!
love the house. geraniums or no geraniums.
but,i’d say maybe it hasn’t been the same cause every time. i’d definitely be suspecting the bugs.
How often do you water them? It’s been around 100 here and I’m only watering mine every other day at the most. Sometimes it goes a few days between watering. But mine are beautiful! Could be the bugs. I don’t think the direction of the sun must matter because mine and Mom’s get sun from the East, but they all (including yours) just get sun part of the day.
I would see what google says, and I’d try to get rid of those bugs somehow because that must be what’s killing them. Start with fresh potting soil if you repot. Here’s what I added to my potted plants this year to give them a boost. Mix 3 cups bone meal, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup epsom salt. Add a small sprinkling of this mixture to each hole when planting, or sprinkle some around the base of the plant. The lady that I know that does this always has gorgeous flowers, and so far mine pretty good too!
That’s why I don’t do geraniums, they never stay nice for me. Sorry 🙁
I don’t have any words of wisdom;I share your pain! I saw in our local newspaper that you can hire a plant mentor. But for $30/hr. I can afford to buy new plants!
Yes, I WILL take naps or something because I kept thinking today how tired I am. Oh, and just today I tried to update my profile pic and it wouldn’t let me. Maybe if I tell what it did you can tell ME what to do. =( I’ll talk to you later. =)
Goodness! You’ve got enough information there to, to, to do something! I’ll just tell you what I did last year for the geraniums at work. I’d never “done” geraniums before and maybe it’s ’cause I was clueless that it worked. We had 8 pots of geraniums in full sun last summer. I watered them every single day until the pots dripped out the bottom (this probably was okay because of the hot, direct sun all day every day.) Once a week I fed them with Miracle-Gro. And several weeks into this, I noticed that the soil seemed to have settled, so I put some leftover Miracle-Gro potting soil on top that had been setting in the tool room for who knows how many years. That seemed to really give them a boost. And those geraniums lasted until frost. Oh, and I always broke off the dead flowers. It worked, and we’re trying it again this year… I just won’t be there to see if it works again…
Was this a long enough comment? This is one of those days that I could talk someone’s ear off…
I’m not a pro, but my sister is…..she told me people kill their plants all the time because they are too nice to their flowers 🙂 and water too often, and then they get diseases…water only in the morning, not at night…fungus grows much more readily if you water in the evening, and don’t water unless they are quite dry, about to wilt, then douse them until they are thoroughly soaked, keep all dead blooms trimmed (as afore mentioned from helpful, knowledgeable friends) and if you see bugs munching on them, spray once a week to keep them from killing your “have to have them on my front porch” because you’re right, geraniums do need to grace that beautiful house front! Good luck!
(This is my sister’s best advice, she owns a greenhouse and the most beautiful one for miles around..her place is a sight for sore eyes! Go to mikenpeg from my site and scroll around till you see a lovely picture of the inside of a green house…it has the healthiest and most colorful plants I do believe I have ever seen! This is our oldest sister, she is an Amish lady who has made plants and flowers her life, and oh, wow!)