Zonal Geranium 'Mrs Pollock' (Pelargonium hortorum)

Zonal Geranium June 2003

Oh my! What a lovely geranium! And soooooo big! What's your secret?

Hi Roshana.....I repotted the geranium when I first got it into a much larger pot containing a mix of better quality potting soil & about 1/3 bagged (store bought), cattle manure. In addition, I fertilize every week with a water soluable fertilizer such as Miracle Gro or Walmart's Plant Smart Flower Food, which is just as good as Miracle Gro, made up of the same ratio's of nutrients & less expensive. I switched to Walmart's water soluable fertilizer about 3 or 4 years ago & am very pleased with the results. I water twice daily as well. If you're going to try a water soluable fertilizer for your pots, planters, wall bags etc. NEVER, ever fertilize a dry plant. The fertilizer will burn the roots. Always be sure that the plant is still moist from either an evening watering or water early in the day & go back a little later in the day to fertilize.
Yes, that geranium was a good size when I bought it, had grown quite a bit by the time I took that pic, but you should see it now!! I had to move it from that location as I could barely sit down in a chair!! I placed it against a wall & while one side has suffered because I did that, the side that shows is beautiful & the plant is huge!! What a bargain it's been for only $13.00!! Good luck with your plants, give manure & water soluable fertilizer a try & you'll be very pleased too with the results of all your pots & containers. Happy gardening!!

Thanks for all the info, Sunshine. I do use Miracle grow and I water once a day, usually. I just ran out of Miracle Grow, so I'll try some of Walmarts next. I wish I had a source of manure. I have a friend with horses and I keep meaning to get some from her, but I just haven't done it. I'd never heard to fertilize when the plant was still damp. I'll try that. Although this year's geraniums are ones I started from seed and they were about an inch when I put them in the pots outside! So they have a ways to go. None of them are even flowering size yet. I plan to winter them over though and they should be good for next year. The ones I've wintered over have been even bigger the following year, but nothing like yours! I can't imagine how huge it must be by now! Neat!

Hi Roshana.......Be careful with your horse manure since it's strainght from the source & can burn the roots of your plants like mad. The manure I use is store bought, as in garden centres, & is well aged & sterilized so it does not contain any unwanted seed from whatever the animal might have eaten. It is also nearly odourless. This store bought, bagged manure is available at Walmart's garden centre also. I purchased most of mine this year from a grocery store garden centre & it's beautiful, chunk-free manure. Very easy to pour out of the bag & to mix with other soil. I have used Walmart's & while it can be chunky & lumpy, it works just as well.
From people I've corresponded with at this site, many from the U.S., I get the feeling that many of you are more inclined to use manure straight from the animal where-as, many of us here in Canada use store bought manure. I don't know if store bought is more readily available here or what. I doubt that. I mean .....if we have it, you must have it too.
I suppose one of my big "secrets" & I don't think of it that way at all, is that I also buy my plants, geraniums included, from a nursery or garden centre. I know a few people who grow things from seed during the winter months & I do grow a couple things from seed myself, but the majority of my plants are store bought so they already have a huge start over anything that I'd grow myself from seed.
I'm in Southern Ontario just west of Toronto & there are a ton of garden centres to choose from everywhere, not to mention Walmart, Home Depot,Canadian Tire, & even corner variety stores......everybody sells flowers it seems, so it's all very available to us from April when we get Pansies to October for Garden Mums & Flowering Kale. Same goes at Christmas when you want fresh, live pine branches, twigs & pine cones for outdoor seasonal pots or displays indoors at Christmas. Maybe we're spoiled????!! lol
Anyway......good luck with your plants & do try Walmart's Plant Smart Flowering Plant Food......it's just as effective as Miracle Gro & cheaper!! And yes, it's true.....never fertilize a dry pot or container. You'll see what I mean if you do!! Happy gardening.

Sue, do you know anything about commercially composted manure and mad cow disease? I use the commercial manure for sweet peas, dahlias and other flowers, though not on my veggies. My neighbor told me to wear gloves and a mask and seemed to think I should avoid manure altogether.

Hi NoH2O.....Good question & one I've considered myself on occasion particularily with the 1 (one) case of Mad Cow Disease we had here in Canada in Alberta a couple months ago. All I can say is that I don't eat my manure & I hope that's enough!!!! lol
I have wondered about handling manure as I'm one of those gardeners who do not wear gloves. I wash my hands well after handling manure, it is store bought, bagged manure & sterilized, so I hope for the best.
I think I'd be reluctant to use straight-from-the-source manure as it hasn't been treated in any way & it's "fresh", but my reasons are because it can burn the roots of plants & smells to high heaven & I don't think my neighbours would appreciate that!! Perhaps I have a false sense of security with bagged, store bought manure, but I hope that the sterilization process kills any seed the cow has eaten (or horse, sheep etc.) as well as anything else that might be lurking there.
The manure I purchase comes from Ontario, not Alberta, so in that respect, I hope that's in my favor as well. It was just one case of Mad Cow, so although I might have stopped buying beef for a while because of that scare, I have bought it more recently. We eat more pork & chicken than we do beef even wirh-out that Mad Cow scare.
Really good question though & I'll see what I can find about the sterilization process, how high a temperature the manure is "baked" at etc. & what exactly the process kills off.
I would suggest that if anyone has reservations about using cattle manure to instead use sheep manure which is just as available here at garden centres as cattle manure is & I think about as effective. You know what the best manure is??? Bat poop!!! Haven't seen that for sale, but I know it's available at a premium price at expensive garden centres. Zoo Poo is supposed to be good too, as in elephant poop!! The Metro Toronto Zoo, once or twice a year allows people to come in & bag up some nice elephant poop!! I think I'll just buy my poop thank you very much!!!! lol
Thanks for the question. A very valid one.

Unfortunately the only commercial compost I have seen around here is cow manure and mushroom compost. I can't use the mushroom compost because my soil is already alkaline. When I lived near Seattle chicken manure compost was available but it isn't around here and I think that is because it can carry histoplasmosis (sp?). There is a compost available from sewage sludge but I think it is likely to carry heavy metals, pesticides, etc. So right now the available options aren't too good....

NoH20, one word for the alkalinity of mushroom compost.
"sulphur"

Hi NoH20......My goodness....sewage sludge?? Not from humans I hope! Another cattle manure idea is to brew your own "tea". You can only really do this if you have the space & a large drum of some kind like a plastic rain barrel. Don't know that I'd use metal as it may leach-out gawd knows what & damage your plants more than help.
You take manure, right from the farm, into the drum it goes & top it up with water. I believe you'd have some kind of removeable lid on this so that you were able to stir the "tea" every once-in-a-while. There may be a recipe for manure tea on the Plant Database as I'm not sure of the ratio of manure to water.....perhaps 1/3 manure to 2/3 water., something like that I'd think.
You let this "steep" & for quite some time, but again, I'm not sure how long. Then using a ladle (that you never want to use again for soup etc.!!), you fill up a bucket & water your plants. I think it's really important to let this mixture steep so that it does not burn the roots of your plants. When the water level goes down in the barrel, you simply top it up with more water.
If there's nothing on the Database about manure tea, perhaps if you put it in Google search engine, there might be recipes there. You can find just about anything through Google.
Good luck & enjoy a nice cuppa, but not of manure tea!!! lol

Hi NoH20....Me again...try ....www.rittenhouse.ca for a manure tea recipe. If you have a source for manure, this may be the way to go.

The local zoo is going to sell zoo manure. Has anyone ever used it?
IT is supposed to be well composted. Hopefully, if I get any, it wont burn my plants.

Hi iamakylady53..........Better late than never!!
Zoo poo is supposed to be great stuff, especially elephant poop. Our Metro Toronto Zoo used to allow the public once or twice a year to scoop poop!! I'm not sure if they still do or not, but it was a very popular event with gardeners. Happy scooping!!

LOL
Yep, better late than never.
It hasn't done anything special as far as I can tell to make my plants any happier, but it does seem to be a good mulch.
Kathy