Nineteenth century a strong source for bronze and gold geraniums

Press, 18 January 1979, Page 10

Nineteenth century a strong source for bronze and gold geraniums

Home & People

Among the bronze and gold geraniums my favourites are oldies — “Marechai MacMahon” and “Golden Harry Hieover.” The former was raised in- France in 1880, and named for the President of the Third French Republic. It won an F.C.C. in Britain in 1897. The leaves are lettuce green, with a broad reddish brown Zone extending almost to the edge; it is a very handsome plant. The origins of “Golden Harry Hieover” are not recorded, but the plant was grown before 1880. It is smaller all round than “Marechai MacMahon,” the leaves are yellowish green, and the coloured zone is chestnut rather than reddish. The flowers are vermilion, and bigger than those of “Marechai MacMahon,” which are Dutch vermilion. Among the more modern black-leaved geraniums I like “Corroboree,” an Australian (with that name, what else?), but find it difficult to grow; in the sun it burns, and in shade it loses the lustrous black zone from its leaves. A better all-round plant in the same flower-colour range is the old reliable “Salmon Black Vesuvius,” a miniature with geranium lake flowers, produced most freely in late spring and early summer. The leaves are ivy green, heavily zoned with black, and in strong sunlight the leaf glands enlarge and a prominent covering of white hairs develops, giving the whole plant an appearance of having been dusted with silver. This does not seem to happen under glass. ‘‘Salmon Black Vesuvius” arose in 1907 as a sport from “Black Vesuvius” (1890), and differs from its parent only in the flower colour; the parent, now called “Red Black Vesuvius,” has Dutch vermilion flowers. Cannell, the raiser of both Vesuviuses and of “Marechai MacMahon,” completed the quartet with a famous golden tricolor, “Henry Cox.” I

have not grown this, but have often admired it, and made mental notes to search out a plant or cutting. It has single flowers in a catchy shade of begonia pink, but its most colourful part is the leaf, this varies from lavender green (really a grey-green) at the centre to citron at the edges, with a shadow zone of mandarin red and a black-butterfly. It was introduced in 1879, and won a first-class certificate in the same year. In 1960, having presumably undergone the necessary surgery, it won another as “Mrs Henry Cox.” An equally pretty centenarian is “Mrs Pollock,” an amiable plant that has been around since 1861. This flowers in spring, in a striking shade of vermilion, and with me its

leaves are most colourful in winter. They are citron, with an irregular dark zone ranging from ivy green to grey-green, and a shadow zone of mandarin red. It won an F.C.C. in 1861. For floral display, I like the “rosebud” type, and some of the “Stellar” hybrids raised by the late Ted Both in South Australia. I do not grow the large-leaved “regal” types, because I find them both difficult and vulgar. But one of their ancestors is occasionally offered by nurseries, and is worth growing. This is Pelargonium cucullatum. It is not really suitable for cultivation in pots, because it is a straggly grower that makes a big, droopy bush, but it is worth trying outside in a suitably sheltered spot. Precautionary cuttings rooted in late summer or early autumn can be kept through the winter I through the winter on a window sill.

“Cucullatum’' means “hooded,” and refers to the flowers, which are small, and are indeed shaped like baby bonnets. The colour is an entrancing shade of doge purple, unique among the pelargoniums. Geraniums of the rosebud group have fully double flowers, with a heart like a tiny lettuce, and when the flower is full blown the middle petals remain unopened, making a passable imitation of a rosebud. I grow only one, “Red Rosebud,” also known as “Rosebud Supreme” and “Scarlet Rambler.” The flowers are a dashing shade of geranium lake. If I had space to keep them through the winter I would add “Plum Rosebud,” in Tyrian purple, and “Apple Blossom Rosebud,” a strong grower with white flowers, edged with rose, and a green eye. All three are “good doers.” The “Stellar” geraniums are an interesting group developed by Mr Both, who was a South Australian nurseryman and spar e-time hybridist. There are 30 or 40 of them, all good. Many were not named when Mr Both died, and his estate released them to collectors under their stud-book numbers. The best I have seen is No. 440, which, 1 believe, has now been named “Stellar Grenadier,” appropriately, for it has vividly scarlet double flowers. These are produced very freely, in compact heads on handy-sized stalks, and last for ages when picked. I doubt if' there is a more free-flowering geranium than this one. Our plant has not stopped for four years. The name, “Stellar,” is for the leaves, which slope away quickly from the stalk and have very distinctive triangular ” lobes that make the leaf look like a sawn-off star. All the “Stellars” are good. They have, too, the obliging habit of adjusting their growth rate to the size of the container, so that it is oossible to have

a compact, free-flowering plant in a 4in pot, or a big bush in a 12in pot. The new Deacon hybrids have this habit, too. It would be interesting to see what the “Stellars” would do if planted out in the open garden in a frost-free area. But at 700 ft, in a frost pocket, this is an indulgence I will have to forgo. None of these geraniums seems in the least fussy about soil, so long as it is well drained. I have tried various potting mixes, at steadily increasing prices, over the years, and now settle for an allpurpose recipe that I can mix myself: two parts of sieved peat and one of river sand, with a level teaspoon of dolomite limestone per sin potful.

This mixture is fine, as it stands, for seed raising and cuttings; for growing on I mix in proprietary plant food as directed on the label. This, fifth weekly feeding from November to March, keeps most plants in blooming good health.

GARDENER’S DIARY

By I

Derrick Rooney