Monday, February 7, 2011

Random plant event: Pelargonium x hortorum 'Vancouver Centennial' keiki?


Okay. Probably not a keiki. As far as I know, Pelargoniums don't do keiki. But it sure looks like a plantlet's forming on the flower stalk. At the very least, leaves are growing where leaves oughtn't grow.

Is this a thing that happens? I was unable to find anything about this via Google.

UPDATE: Gwen tells us in the comments:

This is called Proliferation (or Hen & Chicken). Caused by over feeding and watering at the beginning of spring when the plant has just sarted to grow after resting in winter. Needs to be removed as it will sap energy from the plant.
Gwen, incidentally, has a Pelargonium-centric blog, "Perfect Pelargoniums," which has been on my reading list for a while, which you may find interesting. (I very badly need to write a post about other plant blogs again. I keep meaning to.) So we can be confident that she knows whereof she speaks. Thank you very much, Gwen.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm stumped. I hope some of your readers come up with some answers. I rarely do geraniums, and only outdoors, so it's not surprising that I never saw this before. I'll be watching for an answer.

Gwen said...

This is called Proliferation (or Hen & Chicken). Caused by over feeding and watering at the beginning of spring when the plant has just sarted to grow after resting in winter. Needs to be removed as it will sap energy from the plant.