I did battle with a lovely lemony-smelling geranium yesterday - Geranium Citriodorum, Lemon-Scented Geranium. They have green leaves that are not like your regular geraniums at all and smell like lemons. With pale pink flowers, this is a low-maintenance plant with lovely lemon-scented foliage, that emits its smell when rubbed or crushed and is often used in patio and flower beds, being particularly good along pathways where you can just reach out to touch and smell them.


Mosquito Repellent

This plant is commonly found under a number of names, such as citronella plant, mosquito plant geranium, citrosa geranium, and Pelargonium citrosum. Though many of its names leave the impression that it contains citronella - which is a common ingredient in insect repellent - the plant is actually a variety of scented geranium that simply produces a citronella-like scent when the leaves are crushed, and originated from taking specific genes of two other plants – Chinese citronella grass and African geranium.

They are said to repel mosquitoes, which was a good enough reason to me to have them dotted around my garden! They need to be planted in full sun in well-drained soil, and mine have not only survived the heat but grown to the point that they need cutting back.

After it has spent the season in bloom and begins to die back a bit, you'll maybe want to prune it. This keeps the plant dormant for the winter and also helps it store energy for spring, this might need to happen anywhere from August to late October, so now is the perfect time here in Portugal.


Propagating Geranium Citriodorum

On my plant, the older stems had got very woody and out of control, extending all over the place, but has nice new growth at the ends, so some of this new growth I have used as cuttings. I have potted up a few – and if you haven’t done it before, it’s very easy. Propagating them requires very little expense and no fancy equipment. In fact, some gardeners have good luck by simply breaking off a stem with new growth on it and planting it in the same pot or area as the parent plant, which is what I did – just planted a few cuttings near the parent plant to stop the parent plant looking so lonely and hopefully, it will fill the area with new growth in due course.


However, if you want to do it from the book, cut a stem from a healthy growing plant using a sharp, sterile knife. Don’t use the old, woody stems. Make the cut just below a leaf joint, and remove all the leaves except the top two, removing any buds and flowers from the stem. An 8 cm pot is fine for a single cutting, while a 10-15 cm pot will hold four or five cuttings, just ensure whatever you use has drainage holes in the bottom. Fill the pot with a regular potting mix or seed starter, water it well then set it aside to drain until the mix is evenly moist, but not soggy or dripping wet. Plant the cutting in this damp potting mix. Be sure the top leaves are above the soil. Don’t bother with rooting hormones; it isn’t necessary.

Water lightly after about a week or when it feels dry, and watering from the bottom is preferable. For extra protection or particularly cold areas, they say to cover the pot lightly with plastic, then poke several holes in the plastic to provide air circulation. (This is optional, but the greenhouse environment may speed rooting). Insert a couple of drinking straws or chopsticks to hold the plastic above the leaves.


Get out your jam-jars!

You can even root them in an old jam-jar full of water - place a cutting in the water, and ensure the bottom one-third of the cutting is submerged. Place the jar in a warm spot, such as on a sunny windowsill. Avoid hot, direct sunlight, which will cook the cutting! Watch for roots to develop in about a month. Then, plant the rooted cutting in a pot, as above.

Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan