A Pelargonium Gem from down under.

A few years ago Ken Attfield of Australia sent me some of his pelargonium seeds.  With great excitement I sowed some of them and watched these tiny seeds from across the world grow into pelargoniums.  It is always exciting growing seeds from pelargoniums, but I had no idea what I was growing.    Many of them were fairly ordinary and very similar to others we have here.  

Three I thought different and kept them. One was a miniature stellar, with which I won a second place in the Farnborough Fuchsia & Pelargonium Show a couple of years ago and named it Charmay Pink Ice.  The second was a zonal I had not thought much of and planted it in the border until I spotted a brilliant scarlet red peeping between two other plants and found it was one of Ken's plants.  I immediately dug it up and I have named that Charmay Scarlet. It has charming primitive scarlet flowers.

The third was a lovely gold leaf with single pink flowers with a white eye.  I had no idea what to call it, until I noticed that the pink petals turned a blue colour when they faded and I thought of opals.  So, I provisionally named it Charmay Opal, but I have now heard from Ken and he thinks he may already have a Charmay Opal - and asked that I name it Charmay Golden Opal.  And here it is:-

Charmay Golden Opal

I hope that one of the nurseries will release it - it really is a lovely plant and the pink compliments the gold leaves beautifully.    I've taken cuttings and will let one or two of them have it to see if it is worthy of release.  What is really good is that the petals don't scatter as so many singles do.  

I've still got some of the seeds so will be sowing some more in the spring.

I had to go up to the Midlands on Saturday for a PAGS meeting, so was gone all day and back late.  A frost was forecast so at 9.30 pm I was stumbling around the greenhouses with a fading torch covering the plants with newspapers.  A trick passed on to me by Ken Attfield, and it works!

So today I have been putting bubble wrap up.  One greenhouse done and one to go.