Sorry, that was an old inside family joke - my mother LOVED geraniums, but in the winter, she would pull them all inside, and keep them in our downstairs wreck room and ignore them. They would literally wind up being just the sticks of the geranium plant.

I remember quite vividly one spring she was downstairs watering and feeding them, and my sister commented to her, "Mom, why bother? They're just sticks." And I turned to my sister and said, "Shhh. She thinks they're geraniums."

Fooled us both - by late spring they were beautiful, huge vibrant plants.