Potting on plants

Just gently tease the roots. With these kinds of soft plants, you mustn't be too aggressive with pulling out the roots. So leave it, you know, just pull it up slightly so that they're just not going to go round in a circle and then just hold the plant in the centre of the pot with your hand like this. You must make sure that a plant that's
repotted goes right in the middle, because the root grows evenly round the outside and the shoot will grow evenly as a result. If you get it on one side, it's bound to get more shoot on the side where the roots have got more extension room and then you get a lopsided plant.

So just hold it gently at the level that you wanted. And then you can see that I'm just picking up small amounts in my hand and pouring it into the rim. And once you've gone round once, then just use your fingers and push the compost down around the outside. Don't push the plant in the middle, there's no need.

So that's potted, it's nice and firm. I'm going to water it just once. Give it a good soak. And I use tepid water. If you use water that's already acclimatised to the same temperature that your pelargonium was sitting at, it’s much less likely to get shocked and it'll grow away much faster. So when I said I was going to water it once, what I mean is, I'm going to water it and then it doesn't get watered again until it's dried out. So you don't water once a week or once a fortnight or on a regular basis. You feel the pot, the compost, to see whether it's moist or not. And if it's dried out, it gets some more water. Even lift the pot up and feel the weight of it to see whether it needs water or not, because sometimes the top of the compost dries out and the bottom is still wet.

So here we've got it. We've got a pelargonium that's been repotted or potted on into a new pot. It's bigger than it was so that the roots can grow out and the shoots will get much bigger. It's in a well drained compost that's been mixed so that it's got a nutrient base, good mineral stability and some grit to give it some weight. And it's going to take about a month or six weeks before it's grown in size and covered in flowers - the most beautiful lemon-scented pelargonium.