Pelargonium may be dead - what can I do?

[SirVixofVixHall]

Before she died four years ago, my mother potted up a Pelargonium, and I have had it ever since. The last couple of months I have been so distracted with everything going on that I neglected to water it, which made it unhappy ( it was in my conservatory, which gets warm in sun). It started to grow new leaves, and I made the fatal mistake of thinking the weather had warmed up enough to put it outside, but we must have had a cold night, as the new leaves died and it is just stems.
I am so upset about it. It has just been the anniversary of my Mum’s death which hasn’t helped.
Is there anything at all I can do to possibly get some new leaf growth ? It is back under cover and I have been making sure it doesn’t get too dry.

I think just continue as you are, cut off any definitely dead branches and be careful not to over water. Are you very far north? Mine were outside in pots all winter and 7 out of 10 survived. Some looked pretty bad but once I had cut off the dead branches they perked up

Oh, and I'd probably feed it (I used seaweed plant food on mine) and at some point you'll need to re pot it in new compost.

Pelargoniums can be hungry plants. Give it a feed. If it does spring back you might want to take a few cuttings so you have more than one plant to remember your Mum by. 💐

Yes, I feel so stupid for not taking cuttings. I have never done cuttings, so wasn’t sure what to do.
I will feed it in the morning, should I re-pot now ? It is a few brown stalks. 😢😢😢

I am in Wales, not in a very cold bit. We have had a very dry month with cold nights, that seems to have made my three pelargoniums that I put outside most unhappy , but this one looks dead, as it had brown dry leaves, then some new growth, and now I have managed to kill the new growth.

I'd leave the re-potting until it's feeling a bit better. 🤞 for your plant. I wouldn't give up on it yet, just be patient and hope for the best.

Thanks so much everyone. I just completely forgot about it with everything going on. ☹️

They don’t want to go outside until after the last frost. Which might be late May.

If it does survive, the good news is that perlagoniums are one of the easiest things to take cuttings from. I've forgotten how to do it properly; I've got a scented geranium I bought on the holiday when DD was conceived... or offspring of it, maybe not the original as such .... now I just cut off excess growth, trim off a length and remove excess lower leaves and bung it in a glass on the windowsill, most of them grow roots. DD is 21 so this method has been working for a while!

Hope your special plant recovers. There's a chance the root is ok and you just frosted off the tender new growth.

Thanks for the advice on cuttings, I will try that if it comes back to life. I am going to give it a feed shortly and will it to live.. !

If it doesn't make it, buy an identical replacement in memory. I've had to do this once or twice. I doesn't take long for "the plant mum loved" to feel as important as "the plant mum grew herself" if you see what I mean.

It wasn’t particularly a plant she loved , that would be Lily of the Valley, and roses. She had moderate dementia and was in a care home near me. While she was still mobile, her last Summer, the lovely gardener got her potting up some Pelargoniums one day, and it was a very happy day for her, in a rather sad time. After she died he gave me one that she had potted. So it is just this particular plant that I feel upset about, rather than being able to have more of them to remind me of her. That is why I feel so wretched about killing it. 😢😢😢

It might come away, give it time.

What a lovely memory of your mum, I’m sorry she’s no longer with you.

I feel so foolish not having taken cuttings, although if I had, I might have killed a whole row of them..

It might be best to not feed it at the moment. It can't use the nutrients anyway unless it has leaves. The general advice is not to feed a sickly plant. I read a long and involved academic article about it once - there are technical horticultural and biological reasons, I just can't quite remember what they are

😬😬😬😬 Oh dear. I had already fed it when I read that.