Thanks TR :)

I think geraniums/pelargoniums are some of the most popular and widely grown plants even in this day and age. A lot of people grew up around people who grew them, like you did and me with my Dad with was a keen gardener too, and then often started gardening themselves with geraniums/pelargoniums.

Try the scented varieties if you get a chance – they are lovely :) Lady Plymouth is a popular lemon scented one and can grow into quite a large vigorous bush. Plant it next to a path so that anyone brushing past it releases the lemony scent from the leaves.

I have not been active in the garden for the last couple years but hope to get back into more gardening this year. In this area my geraniums have stayed out all winter. They are still living although frost bitten a bit. I will trim them back in another month or two and repot them. I don’t have any scented geraniums but it would be fun to try one.

I got some free F1 hybrid pelargonium seeds from Mr. Fothergills when I placed my seed order this year and it’s years since I grew pelargoniums from seed!
http://myfolia.com/plantings/187134-geranium-mr-fs-mophead-mixed-f1-hybrid-pelargonium
They’re called Mophead Mixed and come in several different colours so it will be interesting to see what happens.

As a complete contrast to the (expensive if I’d bought it) seed, the compost, the warm propagator and all the other ‘pampering’ I’ve done to the F1 hybrid seed, I was amazed to find pelargonium seedlings growing by themselves in my greenhouse.

A couple of my named varieties are very prolific at setting seed which can be a nuisance because they’re messy. But many of the seeds drop down onto the compost on top of the pot and stay there. When I started sprucing up my plants ready for the new season, topdressing the pots and watering them with a weak liquid feed, these dormant seeds suddenly sprang into life.

I now have six yellow/gold leaved seedlings visible in the pot below the mother plant of ‘Milden’ which is a variety with golden leaves and red and white splashed flowers
http://www.kwekerijgommer.com/details/Pelargonium/224300/

In addition, I removed and potted up another nine from another gold leaved variety, many of which are showing a distinctive chestnut zone to the leaves which is very attractive. These seeds have been in pots of unsterilized compost, kept pretty dry, in a greenhouse which has dropped below freezing on several occasions this winter. Yet they are coming up like cress …

The likelihood of one of these seedlings being a worthy named variety is fairly slim but, on the other hand, each one is unique because no-one else will have it so I’m going to grow them on just to see what I get :-)

They got very potbound, Amarylis, but I eventually planted them out in a sunny position but in soil that was a mixture of sand and ‘ram’ which is the local clay. It baked hard in the dry spell we had last spring but most of them survived and put up a not-particularly-spectacular show. No unusual colours – just the usual mix of white, pink, salmon, red and cerise.

You’re right – there are a lot of groups on folia but not many active ones :-(