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Re:starting pelargonium species seeds

I grow a cultivar P. 'Mabel Grey" sp to use in tea, wonderful lemon taste.
Is this Summer or Winter and can I let it go dormant. Currently it stays in
year round? Would love to know more. 


At 10:07 AM 4/21/97 +0200, you wrote:
>Greetings from Sweden!
>
>Hi Diana,
>
>First of all you need to separate the Pelargonium species into two
>categories, Wintergrowers and Summergrowers, they come from Winter rainfall
>areas and Summer rainfall areas respectively in South Africa.....well, not
>all species Pelargonium come from South Africa, but the majority does.....
>So...you sow the Summer rain fall Pelargoniums now....in a draining
>seedmix...they dislike being sown in a purely peatbased mix as this often
>tends to retain too much moisture.....most species are xerophytic in
>Nature.
>Also you might improve germination by an overnight soaking, but I don't and
>manage fine anyway.
>You will need to keep the temperatures fairly low..around 20 C or about 70
>F....not more as this will inhibit germination. And they aren't too fond of
>humidity either...so I try to keep mine cool and moist though not
>humid..;-) best I can.
>I also remove the parachutes as they might get tangled in each other., and
>as they react to moisture they might pull each other out of the soil. They
>are meant to corkscrew the seed into the ground when it rains....and it
>doesn't do that everyday where they come from :-)
>
>If you sow the Wintergrowers now, they'll germinate and will just go
>dormant, and you are faced with the task of keeping tiny tiny dormant
>plants alive over Summer, so, it is better to store the seeds and sow them
>in September. Also something nice to look forward to. Or you can sow them
>in January, to make them grow a bit larger before dormancy.
>
>Good Luck!
>
>Ingrid ( grey, cold and just where did Spring go?)
>
>
>
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