Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: maggiepie on July 09, 2009, 07:02:12 PM
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I obtained seed of G. nanum from SRGC this year.
Today I found the first flower on one of the seedlings, it is beautiful but I can't find out much information about it.
Birgitte Husted Bendtsen's book refers to it as being best grown in an alpine house.
Am hoping the seed donor might have some extra information on how to keep the plant alive over winter, I would hate to lose it.
The only pic I can find that looks like mine is on Magnar's site, so am wondering if he was the donor :)
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Magnar would certainly be a good person to advise you, Helen, whether or not he gave the seed! 8)
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What a lovely Geranium nanum, Helen, your photos show the new little plant so well and I love the close up :)
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It's very pretty. :)
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Is this any good, Helen?
http://www.kadel.cz/flora/g/kvCard.asp-Id=13728.htm (http://www.kadel.cz/flora/g/kvCard.asp-Id=13728.htm)
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Can I be the first to beg seeds? ::)
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Good idea Maggi, I thought he might be at his cabin.
Robin, I almost fell over when I saw a half opened bud, am so happy with it.
Lesley, it's lovely and even nicer that it will stay small.
Thanks Simon, I wonder how wet too wet is for some plants, I'm not sure whether to chance leaving it in the garden or potting it up for winter.
None of my erodiums croaked last winter, hopefully that is a good sign.
Mark, if I manage to get some seeds I will think of you.
At the moment I am being plagued by wee harlequin buds which have been attacking geraniums and aquilegias grrrrrr!!
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It says it is Moroccan. How good is your snow cover in winter?
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Simon, snowcover is normally around 3-5 feet where I have it planted.
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I have so far (lots of touching wood) not had a problem with Moroccan mountain plants outside with snow cover during our coldest winter weather. If your snow is the powdery dry stuff like ours, it may be a much more stable, and less damp position, for the plant over winter than an alpine house.
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Simon, we get all sorts of snow, dry, wet, freezing, the last few years we have had layers of snow/ice, but we do have very good drainage.
We usually have a bit of a thaw in January, then back to heaps more snow. We don't normally see the ground until early April.
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I couldn't live in conditions like yours Helen. ???
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I have G. nanum in my scree bed where it grows happily and has no problems during winter. I do nothing extra to keep it, but of course the snow cover is of good help. And I also think good drainage is essential.
I have not donated seeds of it. The seeds are extremely difficult to collect. The plant flowers over a long time, and seeds ripen accordingly. And you know how Geranimuls spread their seeds.. you simply have to sit watchinlg over the plant to catch the seeds. But I can see seedlings coming up in the scree, so the plant obviously set seeds.
It is correct that the plant is North-African, origining from Atlas Mountains, Morocco.
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Simon, we get all sorts of snow, dry, wet, freezing, the last few years we have had layers of snow/ice, but we do have very good drainage.
We usually have a bit of a thaw in January, then back to heaps more snow. We don't normally see the ground until early April.
Sounds very much like our winters
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Lesley, after spending most of my life in Australia, I am not sure which is worse, 7 months of summer or 7 months of winter.
I am enjoying being able to grow things I couldn't in Oz but also miss what I could grow there but it is amazing how many things can grow successfully in both places.
What has really surprised me most is the size that certain perennials can grow.
The autumn colours are an added bonus and it is very nice to have 4 distinct seasons.
The worst part of winter is knowing that if you lose power for an extended period you could actually freeze to death. ( not to mention the cost of heating).
Normally we get lots of sun in winter and it is amazing how warm it feels if you are outside in a sheltered position.
Forgot to mention, it is supposed to be the middle of summer here and we got down to +3C a few days ago, all my basil went black.
Magnar, thanks for your input, luckily I have a few of the seedlings although only one has flowered as yet, I think I might pot one and keep it in the unheated garage over winter.
It is such a lovely plant I would hate to lose it.
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Helen,
Can't really add anything but i recall seeing a label on the raised bed outside the alpine house at RBG Edinburgh a few years ago. I noticed it because the seed had been collected in Morocco by our friend Charles Aitchison. The label was in good nick but the plant was either long gone or had been covered by a nearby sprawling G. sanguineum! Alas my own in the garden followed it this year after four years unprotected on the rock garden. Other plants around it also suffered this winter and I think the soil must be getting compacted so must echo above comments about drainage.
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Darren,
I had to move my little plant due to the fact that ants decided to build a nest right under it grrrrrrrr!!
It looks like it might survive but it is a lot smaller than it was when it flowered.
The other plants so far have not flowered and I don't think they are very happy. Have discovered some little green bugs that hop, after finding a few plants looking sad and wilted, not sure what they are but suspect they are some sort of leafhopper.
So think that it will be bugs that do me in rather than drainage :(
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I had to move my little plant due to the fact that ants decided to build a nest right under it grrrrrrrr!!
What a shame Helen, do hope your Geranium nanum is OK now - ants seem to have a mind of their own and have moved nest at least three times this year in my rockery, marching along with young!
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I hope your plant recovers Helen.
Susan just removed another defunct Geranium today (nothing so special as G. nanum). They are not having a good year here, except G. sanguineum which is impossible to kill.
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Robin, I have never seen as many ants in my entire life as I have seen the 3½ years we have lived here.
Not sure which ones are the worst, the small reddish coloured ones that moved under the nanum or the huge black carpenter ants that make a beeline for pots and eat the roots of the plants.
I thought I would outsmart them and put windowscreen gauze over the holes at the bottom of the pots, guess what!!
They just climbed up the sides and tunnelled in from the top grrrrrrrr!!
I am considering digging up one of the nanums and making it an indoor plant.
Darren, I inherited a sanguineum when we moved into the house, I keep digging it out but it is around 4X4 feet at the moment.
I don't mind the white one getting bigger but the magenta one seems to be much more robust.
I lost a few lovely little clumps cinereum 'Ballerina' just a few weeks ago, were looking fine one day and a few days later wilting and browning off.
Some of my erodiums seem to be going the same way. :'(