Pelargoniums arrived and planted up

When I was visiting Dublin Botanic Garden last month, a particular Pelargonium “Attar of Roses” made me wistful for the plants I’d ordered from Fibrex earlier this year. Propagation being what it is (especially of reasonably hard-to-get species) then a small and dedicated nursery can’t just conjure new plants out of thin air.

Way back when, October 24 was the date Fibrex gave me, and shortly after that time, my plants arrived! I’d never received delivery of specialist plant material before, so it was a bit of a surprise to find them wrapped in newspaper:

Unwrapping them, I found their roots were in plastic bags, wrapped around biodegradable cardboard-ish pots. There were instructions included on how to plant them up, and so despite the presence of fencing landscapers I decided to sort them all out sooner rather than later:

(Clockwise from top: P. “Rose of Attar”, P. peltatum “Mini Cascade Pink”, P. “Chocolate Peppermint”.)

For want of specialized compost I used a mix of organic multipurpose with a lot of sand. I’ve found the Bord na Mona this year has got very claggy, and rubbing sand into it has been like trying to rub sugar into butter for baking, but it was mostly OK.

Despite having been in transit, the foliage looks lovely:

And after repotting I felt like I could see them recovering hour by hour, and really settling in! I gave them a good soak of water but I’m going to let the soil dry out before fiddling with them again.

While I was poking and prodding at them, I did notice some markings on the underside of the P. peltatum:

But after asking Fibrex on Twitter, I got a reassurance that they’d be fine. It seems like oedema can affect ivy-leaf pellies, and the wildly differing behaviours of all the varieties of cutting probable means that they’re more likely to throw a fit when they’re babies. Anyway, I’ll try to keep the soil for this one one drier than the others between watering, and see what the new growth looks like.

And the Rose of Attar, and the Chocolate Peppermint? The leaves smell divine. It’s all I can do to stop rubbing them and let the poor things settle in!