Storm damage

Storm damage

The ‘Black Prince’ variegated Geraniums that have been growing in a trough on the balcony railing all summer suffered badly a week ago when we had some very strong winds & some rain. These 4 plants had flowered magnificently all summer but they had grown too tall & lanky in spite of being in full sunshine from 11am till the sun went down all summer.

Although they were growing in a trough on the middle bar of the railings that surround the balcony on 3 sides it is difficult to see just what is happening to the plants.

I wrapped chicken wire around the railings many years ago when we had 5 little dogs. This was to keep them from getting out onto the street which is quite busy. It also serves to hold up my troughs & pots. I can tie the troughs & pots to the wire & thus they don’t fall off with the slightest puff of air. But the plants grow through the spaces in the chicken wire which, generally, doesn’t bother me, growing as they like makes the display look more natural which is what I like. However in this instance it wasn’t as favourable to the plants as the stems grew taller & outwards. this wasn’t a problem till the strong winds from storms, (just days before the autumn equinox), ‘Ali’ & ‘Bronagh’, especially the latter, started ripping the leaves off the plants & even bending the stems so far back that they all but broke.

The strong winds & the rain also brought down the strings I had tied up from the top of the railings to the ceiling, which broke under the winds & rain & all my ‘Morning Glory’ plants came tumbling down.

As I couldn’t repair the strings I cut them all off at the top of the railings with the climbers wrapped around them & threw them away – much to my sadness. I had hoped they would go on flowering till the end of October, like in previous years, but it wasn’t to be.

Now I have lost the vertical component of the balcony & it all looks so flat & very open, which makes me feel vulnerable when I’m out there!

I cut back all the stems of the ‘Black Prince’ at the same time & used some of them to take cuttings! So I will have lots of plants of this Geranium next year! It roots very easily so not all is lost even if there will probably be no more flowers this year. As they say “Every cloud has a silver lining”.

The other 2 troughs of Geraniums, ‘Vancouver Centennial’ & the unnamed green & white variegated one, escaped the same fate as they never grew so tall & therefore didn’t get so many leaves torn off or their stems broken like ‘Black Prince’. They did however loose the majority of their flowers & some of their leaves were burnt by the strong winds.

The photos show what the trough of ‘Black Prince’ looked like before & after I had cut them back:

The photos show what the trough of ‘Black Prince’ on the balcony floor looked like on July 16th & after the storms had gone through.