Propagating geraniums It's far easier to winter over cutting-grown plants when they are started early in the fall. Actually, the ideal time to take geranium cuttings is the first half of August. This gives the newly rooted plants a chance to establish in optimum late summer conditions before they're asked to survive over the winter indoors. Cuttings can also be taken again in March or late February from geraniums kept as house plants over the winter to yield vigorous young plants for setting out in May. A warm south-facing window is ideal for geranium plants. They thrive in warmth and full sun, and don't mind a dryish soil. It's my preference to winter over young cutting-grown plants because they are a conveniently modest size for wintering indoors at a sunny window. In the spring they can in turn serve as mother plants, sources for more cuttings and an extended collection of geranium plants in the summer garden.

The variegated leaf of the cultivar 'Vancouver' creates a striking backdrop for fragrant heliotrope and trailing lobelia.

However, if you have the space for them in the house the original mother plants can be cut back and potted in late summer, and kept in a bright location indoors during the winter. In really good conditions, such as in a sun room, they will bloom sporadically through the winter. Technique for taking cuttings Zonal, or common garden geraniums (Pelargonium hortorum) are among the easiest of all plants to propagate from cuttings. The trick is to keep water away from the cutting bases in the pot, because dampness at that vulnerable point causes a rotting known as black leg. And unlike almost all other cuttings, zonal geranium cuttings should not be given a humidity tent during the rooting period -- again, to avoid the damp conditions that are hazardous to these geraniums. First, prepare containers to receive the cuttings. Bulb or azalea pots are well suited for geranium cuttings, because their shallow depth helps prevent the problem of an overabundance of damp soil below the cuttings. Scrub the containers with hot, soapy water, and fill them with a sterile, lightweight, porous planting mixture. The main thing is that the blend stays open in texture and does not compact or hold on to excess moisture. Tiny, fragile roots must be able to penetrate it easily and not be subject to rot by waterlogged conditions. I usually start with a ready-made mix such as Redi-Earth and add half as much sterile, bagged soil. To increase aeration in the mix I add perlite, about half as much as the soil. Select only your best plants from which to take cuttings. Look for healthy, vigorous plants that have produced the most numerous, beautifully formed and vibrantly colored flowers. If you have several different varieties, or colors of geraniums that you want to duplicate with cuttings, take the cuttings from each one separately. Have a container filled and ready for each set of cuttings and label each one right away. To make the cuttings, either snap or cut off growth four to five inches (10 to 12.5 cm) long. Remove any flowerstems from the cuttings and shorten them to about three inches (7.5 cm), making a slanting cut immediately below a leaf joint. Remove the lower leaves and little leafy wing-like bits that grow along the stem so that none of these will end up beneath the soil. Poke a hole into the planting mix with a pencil and insert the cutting, firming it securely into the mix. Place the cutting deeply enough so that it is well supported. If you are rooting just one cutting, use a pot three inches wide. If you are rooting several, use a communal pot eight to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) wide. Group cuttings are best placed around the outside edge of the pot, with a small indentation left in the middle for watering. Adding only moderate amounts of water to the centre of the pot keeps each cutting watered while allowing it to remain a bit on the dry side at its vulnerable point. When watering a single cutting, direct the flow of water away from the stem around the pot rim. For the rooting period set the cuttings in a warm, bright place out of direct sun. Coolish air temperatures (to minimize evaporation from the leaves) together with warm soil to induce fast rooting are ideal. Pot the cuttings in individual containers as they root and begin to show new growth.

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