Plant-A-Day 2020 (Day 24) Pelargonium laxum

This is another old-timer. I believe the original plant came from City People’s Mercantile on Madison maybe ten years ago. I have lost the tag or it faded, so I am not clear on the species, but recent research makes me think it is Pelargonium laxum.

I don’t have a lot of photos of this plant, but I have some decent flower pictures–it bloomed for me for the first time in 2019.

The worst thing about researching is that I saw about a dozen other succulent Pelargonium species I would love to try.

Here is a photo from several years ago which gives an idea of the habit the plant displays for me:

As succulent as this plant is, and leaning toward geophytic, it probably would prefer much less water than it gets with me. You can tell from the photo that it is growing a bit rampantly and weakly. Not only is the watering a factor, but in the greenhouse, it doesn’t get the burning bright sun that it would expect in its home in South Africa. But it survives and grows every year.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to pot it into a slightly larger (and heavier) pot and include some sort of stake supports to keep the plant upright. I’ll put 2/3 sand in the pot with 1/3 potting soil. I also want to take some cuttings from the tips of the branches and try to grow them with even more drainage and drier, sunnier conditions to see if it will look a little more bonsai-ish.