For fully five months of the year our front porch is resplendent with geraniums in pots: they blossom in white, red, coral, various shades of pink, and variegated colors. They soak up the sun in containers of every size and kind: former pickle jars, painted pots, jardinieres, and repurposed crocks.
What the heck is going on with me and this particular annual plant? Good question, but
whatever you call it – obsession, devotion, compulsion, distraction – I have been putting geraniums into containers to adorn our home’s entrance for going on twenty-five years. There are lots of reasons to admire and plant geraniums. These are mine.
There are so many different colors and varieties of geraniums; that great diversity has appeal to me. Just when I think I have every possible color represented and planted, I see another one – slightly different, slightly brighter, unique foliage – and that works a certain magic on me. I don’t have a color scheme, size classification, hue preference. It is all a riot of color and containers and, frankly, a hot mess of choice. The attraction in the geraniums I put out is precisely because each one is different, each soaking up the sun, and yet together they are a symphony of summer flower power.
Geraniums are unbelievably forgiving . . . ah, if only humans were the same. I can forget to water them, fail to plug off dead leaves or deadhead them, do not immediately repair digging attempts by neighborhood squirrels, and they continue to blossom and grow. You give them just a little bit of love and they repay tenfold.
Complementing the geranium’s capacity to forgive occasional abandonment, they are unbelievably hardy and strong. They bloom when it is 100 degrees and light out for 18 hours a day, and they bloom after an autumn snow and temperatures around freezing. It’s as if they are challenging the elements – and humans – to damage or diminish them. That combination of beauty – persistence – in the face of adversity, and vigor is winning. It is inspirational and powerful.
In the winter, I bring all my geraniums indoors. I’ve never found an exact formula for geranium over-winter success. I think they might all need a gnarly haircut, but I hate to hack at them when many of them are still blooming. Some will find a way to survive the winter inside and some, alas, will not. But they’re all trying.
I say to people all the time that I’m a cheap date – it doesn’t take much to give me a smile, make my day, brighten my mood. Geraniums are beauty and budget combined. For very little money, a geranium will give back much more than I could ever invest in it. For only a few dollars, I get growth, flowers, greenery, amazing resilience, and staying power. I make a modest purchase in May or June and they are still getting it in done in mid-November. Geraniums just keep on giving long after it is reasonable to expect that they do.
And so, as we all hunker down indoors, cocoon and shelter for the winter, look to the geraniums for inspiration and motivation to survive the winter and anticipate, gladly, the coming of spring.
