On 05/07/2014 11:46, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 4 Jul 2014 18:35:59 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 2014-07-04 14:21:02 +0000, Bob Hobden said:

"David Hill" wrote

Bob Hobden wrote:
"David Hill" wrote

The Gardening club newsletter from Wyevale has this offer
Get a free geranium when you spend £15.00 or more

"Geraniums are this season's must-have plant - they flower all year
round and give your garden an instant splash of colour."

No mention of what frost does to them.

Frost does not affect Geraniums much at all, they are quite hardy,
except for a couple of the large species. :-)


Sorry Bob I should have added that the picture accompanying the item
was of a pelagonium, but I thought the bit "Flower all year" would have
made it obvious that it wasn't any form of hardy geranium


Only joking David, I find it very strange that the "trade" still call
them Geraniums when they have been Pelagoniums for a very long time,
1932 wasn't it. Yet they changed to from using Datura to Brugmansia
almost instantly as they have other plants that had their names changed.

That said I did hear a chap in RHS Wisley shop say to his wife " they
haven't got any Geraniums, it says Pelagoniums, we'll have to go to a
GC" so perhaps there is a reason for the reluctance to change.

It's probably because the vast majority of customers still ask for
Geraniums, not Pelargoniums and you so often have to ask exactly which
they want. It's quite surprising how many people still don't know there
is a difference and it's important to ensure they're getting what they
want, of course! We quite often talk among ourselves about 'geraniums'
when we mean Pelargoniums. We just know what we mean once the
conversation goes a tiny bit further! ;-)

I had a SIL (now an ex-SIL) who swore blind that geraniums (as in
pelargoniums) were derived from cranesbills, and she wouldn't be
shifted from that view, because 'an old gardener had told her'!


A very prestigious garden centre we visited recently didn't seem to know
the difference. I imagine someone had ordered a million "deep red
geranium" labels from the printers and didn't want to waste them. Very
confusing but I forgive them because they had the elusive erigeron
karvinskianus in stock (well, just one hiding in a corner).