Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
“Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my Geranium to see you.”
A few months ago, a friend gave me a Geranium cutting, just a little
piece of stalk with one leaf, which I planted in an egg shell filled
with potting soil and kept on the kitchen counter (Tarlton, Gauteng,
South Africa). As soon as there were enough roots, I planted her into
this Terracotta pot, egg shell and all. Within 2 weeks I had about 8
leaves and another stalk appearing next to the original cutting. She now
lives on the patio near my Natal Fig bonsai, and I’m sure I’ve heard
them whispering to one another a couple of times! And now every spring
she blesses me with a great show of her gorgeous flowers.
It is well known that the whole Geranium genus is highly redolent of
volatile oils – lemon-scented, musk-scented, and peppermint-scented. In
South Africa folk-lore has it that, if you plant Geraniums in your
garden, you will never have any snakes!