Dot Graham
A piece of my pink-flowering geranium broke off when the pot fell over. We put it in a vase, where it made new flowers that were red, not pink. What is going on?
J. A. Crofts
Nottingham, UK
The plant is a zonal pelargonium, which is propagated by cuttings, rather than grown from seed.
The fact that the shoot broke off the main plant is irrelevant. The natural colour of the plant is bright scarlet from the pigment pelargonidin, but many new varieties are discovered as a result of genetic mutations, usually referred to as “sports”. Some mutations occur as…
