Dumpster Diving for Geraniums

Growing up, everywhere but California, geraniums were the nice little flowers with that funny smell that Mom planted. I believe this is the case for most gardens. Not here, baby! Geraniums are crazy-mega-monster plants! Taking over feet and feet of ground with their tubular reaching selves! There are several of these massive, more scary than pretty style geraniums around our house.

Of course, as Tai said once, "You just have to look at things there to make them grow." And apparently, with geraniums, you don't even have to be looking.

And yet it was still quite surprising when we found our local dumpster full of geranium cuttings the other day. I guess they decided a certain geranium needed to be cut back, probably to serve as a warning for neighboring plants, and consequently: Free Geraniums!

When I first saw the little flower peeking out of the dumpster I was hoping some over-stressed student had decided that they couldn't handle the responsibility of a plant and threw it out, some magnificent pot and all. Alas. But I did do some research and found out how to work with geranium cuttings. Though there was some conflicting advice. Some said to cut them long, others to cut them short. I went with my gut and cut several of each to see which turn out better. It isn't a very specific gut.

So, now I have four tiny pots of hot geraniums.
They look quite nice don't they? Of course, they are basically just stuck in the dirt. But maybe they put out some lil' roots.

I'll close my eyes for a second.