PELARGONIUM TEMPRANO 'AMETHYST'

Wow! This trailing Pelargonium peltatum (ivy-leafed) 'Amethyst; is a right-in-your-face colour, and belongs to the Temprano series. I bought four from a local garden centre and quite honestly stuck them out in their hanging baskets a couple of weeks ago and despite seriously cold nights it survived here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, 850ft above sea level. In all honesty, I forgot to protect them😂. I think pelargoniums are tougher than experts like to make out but don't go and kill off your pelargoniums just because I said that. We have to find some things out for ourselves.  

Pelargonium peltatum 'Temprano - Amethyst'

While on the subject, I have had four trailing pelargoniums of the Sybil series planted in corner baskets in a somewhat sheltered but open west-facing porch since last year and they are still alive and well. All I did was tuck a little Biofleece 30 ® over the compost surface. 

If you were looking for trailing geraniums that look like this then you will never find them on my blog because I call a spade a spade and a pelargonium a pelargonium 😜 although I do appreciate why garden centres do it. Years ago I went to a garden centre with a friend and had to point out that if she looked for the Butterfly Bush that she wanted to buy, she would find them under signs for Buddleia. 

The label states that pelargoniums like full sun, flower from April to October (actually, I have known trailing pelargoniums flower longer than that), reach a height of 25-30cm (I think they mean length or width - sprawl), they need spacing 40cm apart (not really, not in a hanging basket) or a trough), and are suitable for baskets and containers.  

I take this opportunity to remind you to deadhead the flowers to keep them coming, and if you want the trailing stems to branch out more, you need to pinch (or cut) off the stem just above a leaf joint (node) where you want to encourage it to fork.  

Trailing pelargoniums in a sheltered porch