Enjoying Geraniums

Good morning. Tina here.

My friend Joanne, who lives in Pleasant Valley near Placerville, has a wonderful home with a lovely wrap-around porch.  She grows geraniums every year and keeps them alive in her garage in the winter. I have always admired her porch and her geraniums, and this year I have decided to grow some and try to keep them alive through the winter in MY garage. We will see how that goes, but for now I am enjoying their long-lasting flowers, and how well they grow in the summer heat. 

I found the best deal on the geraniums in six-packs at the Rite-Aid on Broadway in Placerville. Later, after they had sold out of them, I wanted more, and bought four more in plastic pots at Marval in Georgetown. They are all doing well. I want to transplant the ones in the plastic pots into terracotta but I will probably wait until fall. We'll see.

The plants on the south of the deck also have moonflowers growing in them, which I planted when I transplanted the geraniums.  They are getting all tangled up together and I love it,

 I never had much luck with moonflowers before, so I am glad they are happy together.

Joanne has had problems with deer coming up on her porch and eating the geraniums when they are gone on vacation. She says they come back even stronger afterwards though.

 I keep the flowers pinched off after they lose their freshness.

 I think the white ones are my favorites, but I do enjoy the blazing hot red.

 The red one above is a wildly blooming crimson and the hummingbirds love it.

 This pure white was just pinched back, it is ready to bust out again in bloom soon.

 I have a feeling that next year I might have more of these, if I can keep them alive over winter.

 Look what you started Joanne!

The hanging pots need to be filled with geraniums not petunias! Oh no, here we go again...