Gord: I am here with Rob Wynne from Clearview Horticulture. Hi, Rob.
Rob: Hey, Gord.
Gord: Now, with all the thousands of different varieties of Geraniums, are there some that perform better than others?
Rob: Well actually, it depends on where you want to put them in your garden, like some varieties, trails, some geranium. Some say really quite compacts and get quite large. It is funny, the geraniums have changed in the last two years. The breeze have gone to more compact varieties which is frustrating some gardeners.
Gord: Yes.
Rob: Because varieties that use to really fill nicely in the garden.
Gord: Big bushy plants with a big head.
Rob: Yes, so it is important to like ask your retailers, is this variety going to fill out like the over we rise will always fill nicely. Some of the other varieties, if you got a small garden, there are great big flower heads, small plot but a lot of people still expect that was the varieties that fill out really nicely.
Gord: Yes, interesting. You know things are always changing and you sort of wonder why they change there, so it is really neat to hear a different perspective on why things have been change. Now, we got a ivy geranium or a trailing Geranium. Now, how do you take care of that so that it is going to optimize its performance?
Rob: Well, that particular variety there that has so many cascades. It is a European variety and it is self cleaning which is nice. I typically would not put this single flower varieties over a day because they do shutter sometimes but we can get to hang out over the lawn or whatever that would be great. You do not have to touch them, they love the heat and they will just take care of themselves, all you got to do is water them.
Gord: Yes, you spent a lot of times sweeping, you are sweeping all the time yes, exactly. Now, this is sort of a standard one, sort of a standard look, what do I do to this to make it really perform well?
Rob: Okay. The key is to keep the blooms dry when you are watering, like do not water with sprinklers if you have geraniums. Geraniums will perform fantastic in the garden. If you water in the morning, so they can dry down before evening comes. And if you are trying to blooms dry and lots of sun, minimum for about five to six hours of sun a day is ideal of geranium, it is a lovely heat.
Gord: So, it is not really you know, with roses, the overhead watering it, how do they remove black spots of it.
Rob: And if you have a big rain or something, just close through like this, this one is pretty much done, just snap it off that is all you have to do when you take this one off. If the blooms are touching, you know it does not hurt, just take it off. It is a lot more common if they get a little bit crowded that it is time to go down hill anyway.
Gord; Okay, now we got this one here which is you know, the flowers are okay but it is really foliage. So, what would I do to this one that would be different than this to get a nice look to it?
Rob: Well, this is variety is very versatile, I mean, you can put it in a fairly shaded spot and dry the foliage or you can plant it out in the sun and it will follow while in the sun but yes, the foliage there are noble.
Gord: They are cool.
Rob: It is really the foliage that we are going out for.
Gord: Yes, I do not mind deadheading this a lot just to get the foliage. Now, speaking of foliage, this is really nice because you got the dark foliage, you got a nice bright color but I treat this one differently like.
Rob: Actually you do not need to treat it differently, again lots of sun but interesting in matching the dark foliage because typically the variety has have the dark foliage are more compact so that usually a dead get away, if there really darkly normally it is going to be more and more compact. So, that one is going to get really big, probably we do not like the dark, the lighter foliage.
Gord: Excellent, now this brings a question to me that foliage, on a lot of plants, in order to get the bright foliage you have to give them lots and lots of sunlight, does your geraniums work that way?
Rob: Now, sort of geraniums really. Now, that is true in genies and quite a few other plants. With Geraniums now, if they got a very good leaf with less sun or more some, it does not matter.
Gord: Probably just more affected in the flowering.
Rob: The flowering yes, and the leaf, smaller flower but they do put a lot of blooms but you are getting great foliage color and good flower color, maybe as nice flower as some as the others own.
Gord: But then, if they work great together too.
Rob; They do, they do and here we got to make containers but keep in mind that they are usually in the garden bed, I mean they do create and genies do not get me wrong, but they do great in garden bed as well. And your ivies like we talked a bit about of mini cascade here in the single flower but there is some beautiful double flower ivies we have not write any with this at civil homes, as there were common one and they are great and planted and you know perfect.
Gord: We have really sort of text geranium and given us some great ideas on how to take care of our stuff and make sure they are going to look good through the summer.
Rob: And we should also mention Gord, that they do like the well fed, they barely have feeders and that is important to keep them blooming well and keep them foliage color.
Gord: I think we forget that sometimes we water them, we buy them from the garden center and hey, why are they not doing something.
Rob: Yes, just a well balanced fertilizer and moderate to heavy rate, depending on what tightly used could be months later could be every time you water.
Gord: Perfect, thanks Rob, we appreciate this.
Rob: Hey, my pleasure.
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