Sunday Selections # 206

Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post

3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.

4. hop on over to The Elephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

  Andrew often joins in too.

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I have the ailing pelargonium.

here she is in my back porch, not looking well at all.

 

She doesn't look too badly potbound. The skinny green shoot on the right is a cutting I stuck in the pot after it broke off one day. It's grown a nice set of roots and I'll plant it out in the garden.

the surface is crawling with bugs, which would happen if it was in the garden, but that powdery whitish patch doesn't look good. What else could be wrong?

I started breaking dirt off the sides and bottom and found it was quite soggy and sour smelling.
I'd say it has been over-watered. 
It sits on the front corner of the front porch, and I water it when I water the garden, but it isn't drying out between waterings, because of the pot saucer, which I will now leave off, and because the summer watering system is also filling the pot with water. The automatic system gets turned on about once a week all summer about 1am and runs for a couple of hours, giving all the gardens and lawns a good watering. 
I'll counteract that by not watering the pot every time I do the garden plants.

all trimmed up and ready for some new soil.

here she is back in the pot with new soil under and around, also some unnecessary branches and most of the leaves trimmed off.

Angel pretending not to care that I shooed him away from the cutting on the windowsill.

Now I have her soaking in a bucket of water that has a little Seasol added. You might think I'm crazy soaking an already soggy pot, but the new soil I added is quite dry and the Seasol will help with transplant/repotting shock for the pelargonium. I'll leave her there while I eat this bowl of cherries....

Seasol, good for what ails you. If you're a plant that is. 

I wrapped up the soggy old soil and dumped it on the garden.

the mat can hang here until it dries, then I can brush out the dirt before I toss the mat in the machine.

Angel pretending he isn't watching my every move.

I'm very happy with my new secateurs. I bought them with plans to trim the roses, but someone got to them with a chainsaw.

Here's what I did with the cuttings. Hopefully each one will have a decent root system by Easter, then I can just slice up the rootball and plant each new pelargonium into the garden.