A few years ago, a friend from church and a reader asked about unusual plants I may encounter. She asked me what I might find to overwinter in my home so that we could all enjoy the plants both winter and summer.
My friend said I should discuss some plants I would see differently and something we might not expect.
This past week, I attended a Richland County Master Gardener’s meeting. A plant expert and a passionate plant person picked Christmas cactus as a topic. Her name is Christine, and she is from Alta Greenhouse in Mansfield.
As the meeting ended, I asked my friend whether she kept scented geraniums over the winter as mother plants. She said that she did.
One of the efforts greenhouse people make during the year is deciding what to save as mother plants to grow for next year, which is not a small decision. Space for plants inside greenhouses can come at premium prices, with fuel going up.
I think plants with unusual scents are well worth the cost.
As a man who has been married for thirty-seven years, I discovered early on my wife, Sharon, enjoys receiving scented flowers.
Over the time I would come to date her, I would cut her lilacs, lilies, peonies, posies, roses, and many more. I wooed her with wonderful whiffs of waxen efflorescence. She liked that and still allows me to bring her flowers occasionally.
But let’s get real. My wife inspired me to write this column because, during the summer, she likes to go to the flowers in our yard and sniff the fragrant blossoms.Â
Over the years, I have planted shrubs, bulbs, perennials, and trees with wonderful, or maybe not-so-wonderful scents. My goal in design was always to have something in bloom and a scent all year.
In reality, you can’t do that here in Ohio because even with the best plan, you’ll have snow on the ground for a part of the year.
That is where tropical-scented geraniums come into play. If you have a plant with scented leaves when you rub the leaf, the fragrance bridges the gap providing a scent for my wife and others all year.
As I have said, it is always a good idea to discover where to find the plant in the wild and then begin to imitate the conditions best for them to grow.
Geraniums or Pelargoniums are natives to southern Africa, Australia, northern New Zealand, southern Madagascar, eastern Africa, Yemen, Asia Minor, and the isolated islands in the south Atlantic of St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha.Â
These locations are both tropical and yet not considerably moist, which would allow you to do some planning for how to care for them.
There are only 20 original species from which plant breeders have developed over 1,000 cultivars. Scented geraniums are only a tiny portion of their work.
Among the numerous scents tantalizing your olfactory sense are almond, apple, coconut, lemon, nutmeg, Old Spice, peppermint, three types of rose, lemon, southernwood, strawberry, ginger, lemon balm, lime, orange, cedar, chocolate, other mints, pine, other fruit trees, and many spices. While at Alta Greenhouse, I found 17 scented geraniums amongst the scents above.Â
Besides being grown just for their beauty, these plants are grown for commercial purposes. Pelargonium graveolena, one of the rose-scented Geraniums, is very important to the perfume industry. It is distilled for its rose scent and used to enhance and intensify the rose oils.
If you have a cold right now, you should know that Pelargonium sidoides effectively controls coughs. Pelargonium x citrosum, when processed by manufacturers, makes citronella candles.
Some of these scents also translate into tastes.Â
A person can eat most of our wonderful, scented geraniums and taste the flavor that you smell.
When we are growing, a scented geranium will allow you to purchase strawberry jelly, but you did not see any strawberries for the jelly. The flavor came from a geranium.
That strawberry-scented geranium was processed to make the jelly smell and taste like that strawberry you pick. For many years, food processors have used this flavoring in cakes, butter, ice cream, iced tea, and jellies.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.
My website is www.ohealthyfoodscoop.org, where you can leave comments on the blog soon.