My plant room is now filled with friends to overwinter, mostly geraniums. I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for geraniums. They always remind me of my parents and Mr. Hoffman, the kindly neighbor from Floral Park who I’ve mentioned before.
My dad grew red geraniums in window boxes outside of our dining room. In our New York City suburban house, they attracted a hummingbird – a rarity on Long Island. I was in the fifth grade when I saw a hummingbird for the first time.
My seat at the dinner table had me facing the window that overlooked the driveway, with the window box full of red geraniums. Suddenly there was a flash of emerald and an odd hum – and there was a hummingbird, drinking nectar from the geraniums. I had never seen a hummingbird, and ever since then, I’ve been absolutely fascinated with these tiny birds.
I love the beautiful reds, hot pinks and light pinks and the foliage of geraniums. The smell isn’t so pleasant from the foliage, but I like the diversity of foliage on them too – the frilly, frothy, dark green, light green, and green with burgundy stripe foliage.
I managed to save my reds and one pink geranium before the frost. Next year if I can find seeds or plants online for scented geraniums, I’m hoping to add some to the flower garden.
One great thing about gerniums; Pierre hates the taste of them. One nibble and he was cured of his desire to shred Mommy’s plants. If only I was so lucky with the others (and my bookmarks; every single book mark I own is now decorated with cat fang marks.)
You can never have enough geraniums!
The photo below is my plant room…sorry it is so dark; I can’t quite figure out how to get the lighting right in my little room.
