Indoors or out, the charm of geraniums can sweep you away. Their festivity is insuppressible. Geraniums flaunt all the warm, cheerful colors of the spectrum, sharpened with an immaculate dash of white.
Their leaves are a delight to the senses. Consider, for example, the soft fur of kitten’s ear geranium, the spicy fragrance of the nutmeg-scented kind, and the dashing colors of the Cloth of Gold Geranium from 1857. Their appeal is infinite.
Pelargoniums, the proper name for most plants known as geraniums, came originally from South Africa. They are now so numerous and offer so many fine species and varieties for the summer garden outdoors and the window garden in winter it is hard to think of a better group of plants for the would-be specialist.
Pelargoniums are not constantly in flower-like Begonia semperflorens or Impatiens Sultani. But, young plants of the bedding kinds, which look their best in summer in the very lightly shaded garden, can be brought into winter bloom quite easily.
The rarer, fleshy, or tuberous-rooted species and hybrids go entirely dormant in summer and bloom freely in winter.
Lady Washington geraniums occupy a position between blooming in spring and resting almost entirely in late summer. The many hardy species of cranesbills, which do so well in perennial borders, are true geraniums.
However, they differ from the pelargoniums in certain technical characters.
In size, pelargoniums range from tiny dwarfs no Bigger than Tom Thumb roses to great shrubby or climbing specimens seen in semitropical climates.
Flowers may be small and insignificant, as in most of the scented-leaved sorts; round and phloxlike, as in many singles; or Very double, with or without ruffled petals.
The straight-stemmed blossoms may be white, pink, salmon, rose, cerise, scarlet, crimson, yellow, or lavender.
Common garden or zonal geraniums (so-called because of dark zones on the rounded, velvety leaves) have been cultivated since the eighteenth century.
They were derived originally from Pelargonium zonale and Pelargonium inquinans. They are the most dependable family members in America, producing masses of single or double flowers in summer gardens or window boxes and sunny winter window gardens.
Hundreds of double-flowered zonal varieties are available. Unfortunately, some petals are so crowded together that much of the beauty of the flowers is lost.
Salmon varieties are favorites for garden use. However, there is a chaste beauty about the best of the singles, which always appeals to me.
Hybridizers strive for rounded blossoms with wide, overlapping petals, and when this is attained, we have something special, such as a:
- A great bloomer
- White with orange-centered flowers shading to violet
- Orchid with dark pink spots
- White-flecked red blossoms
- Red-flecked white ones
- Pink-centered red or white blooms
- .. all on the same plants
Easy To Grow Zonal Geraniums
Zonal Geraniums, aka – “Zonals,” are easy to grow in bright sunny climates. However, they prefer a soil that is not too rich and full sunshine, except in the heat of midsummer when the broken shade of trees or shrubs is appreciated.
Geraniums, however, should not be planted too near these larger plants as they particularly like free circulation of air.
In summer garden beds, geraniums usually get along with little or no artificial watering, while in pots or window boxes, they need to be watered when the surface soil feels dry to the touch.
Cutting back the top of a young plant just above a leaf bud encourages bushy growth.
Plants in 5″ or 6″-inch pots may be fed once a month with a solution of complete fertilizer or with liquid food when coming into bloom, but always avoid overfeeding and rich soil.
Cuttings removed to encourage branching can be easily rooted in slightly moist sand if they are firm enough to break like a snap bean. After cutting, let them lie in a dry, shaded place for 24 hours before setting in the rooting medium.
Keep the sand just barely moist, never very wet, until roots have formed. They can then be potted in sandy loam. Though fall cuttings make the most vigorous plants, those rooted in early summer make satisfactory young plants for winter bloom.
Plants that have performed well all summer in the garden will not continue to bloom through the winter.
Therefore, they should be pruned back and rested with little water. Since zonals are so easy to propagate from cuttings, many enthusiasts seldom keep the parent plants over winter, especially after growing to an unwieldy size.
Some zonals produce such striking foliage that they are grown by geranium enthusiasts for this alone. The flowers are often inconspicuous. There are notable exceptions to this rule which have strikingly zoned leaves and many lovely flowers. I have found these easy to grow and to propagate.
Among the zonals, you will find a tricolor with leaves of deep green, red, orange, and yellow when grown in full sunshine. Green-centered leaves edged with cream and bearing a purple zone marked in pink. The famous variety, Cloth Of Gold, with truly golden leaves, is very temperamental.
As a class, the fancy-leaved zonals, two dozen or more commercially available, are not easy to grow. For one thing, the variegations are due to a lack of chlorophyll in the leaves, which makes them generally delicate and hard to propagate.
It is best to grow them in pots both winter and summer. Keep them in full sun except in the hottest weather to encourage maximum leaf coloration.
Propagate fancy-leaved zonals from cuttings as soon as you have enough firm new growth to be able to spare a few shoots.
In this way, you will be able to increase your stock of rare and expensive varieties, for the fancy-leaved geraniums are high-priced compared to most of the others. Then, after each variety has bloomed, you can decide whether the blossoms are worth encouraging.
Fancy Leaved Geraniums
Most exciting of all geraniums is the host of species and varieties grown for their scented leaves. Of course, everyone knows the rose geranium, P. gravenlens. It is deliciously fragrant and used in bouquets and potpourri. In addition, there are variegated varieties with deeply lobed and much-divided leaves.
Some of the other fragrant sorts are less common:
- Erect-growing, small-leaved P. crispum, the finger-bowl geranium, and its lovely variegated form, both lemon-scented.
- Velvety soft kitten’s ear or peppermint geranium
- P. tomentosum; nutmeg,
- P. fragrans; coconut
- P. ferulaceum (incorrectly P. parviflorum); which is trailing in habit
- Apple and orange, P. odoratissimum
- P. citriodorum; and red-flowered
- Filbert-scented P. concolor, to name but a few.
Scented Leaf Geraniums
These flowers are small and inconspicuous in most cases though a few varieties have been developed with interesting flowers. I often use the small but freely borne trusses of lavender-pink rose geranium blossoms in mixed bouquets.
Many of the so-called pungent-scented group are oak-leaved and descended from P. quercifolium. The hairy, deeply lobed leaves resemble oak foliage and are usually splotched or marked with maroon. The strong, pungent geranium fragrance is very pleasing.
As a whole, the scented geraniums are easy to care for and are great growers. For years, they have been one of my hobbies, and get along with little attention in the summer garden and winter in our cool greenhouse.
Unfortunately, rampant-growing parents often have to be abandoned in the fall instead of rooted cuttings small enough to bring indoors.
Rooting scented geraniums is not difficult except with woody species like P. crispum and P. crispum variegatum, which are a bit more temperamental.
Give all woody sorts little water in summer, prune back hard in fall before taking indoors and increase water gradually as new growth appears. Use a rooting hormone when making cuttings, which should always be of firm, green new wood.
Ivy Geraniums
Ivy geraniums have glossy, almost leathery ivy-like heaves, trailing angular green stems, and large long-stemmed trusses of single or double flowers. They are ideal trailers for the cool window garden or outdoor window box.
A very cool sun porch or cool greenhouse is the best place for ivy geraniums indoors in winter unless you have a bay window in the sun where the temperature never rises above 65°.
Several tiny dwarf geraniums are ideal for the winter window sill, bearing many small single flowers.
Rosebud Geraniums
The rosebud geraniums produce clusters of tiny double blooms in pink, red or white, while the poinsettia group bear blossoms shaped like small poinsettias.
Tuberous Rooted Geraniums
In the tuberous-rooted group, which becomes completely dormant in summer and blooms in winter, are a climbing plant known commercially as P. ascetosum with scalloped and cupped silvery green leaves and single salmon-pink flowers.
- P. echinatum, the sweetheart geranium, with grayish-green leaves and single white flowers marked in red
- Climbing P. scandens, a single lavender with round glossy, zoned foliage
- P. stapeltoni, similar to P. scandens but with velvety leaves and red flowers, dotted in purple.
The tubers of this type are potted up in late summer in sandy loam enriched with bonemeal. Give water sparingly until growth starts. Then increase gradually watering freely during the flowering period from January to late spring.
Reduce water after bloom and dry off completely when foliage matures, like the fancy-leaved sorts. The tuberous-rooted geraniums are rarities that, as a rule, can be secured only from specialists.
The Lady Washington, show or pansy pelargonium is a type, the exact ancestor of which is uncertain, though several species have places in its family tree. Though its culture is similar to the tuberous-rooted geranium, there are many distinguishing characteristics in the show pelargonium.
The stems are quite woody, and the leaves are either unlobed or angle-lobed, with sharply notched edges. The large, pansy-shaped flowers consist of two dark upper petals and three lighter lower petals.
There are many named varieties. Since they bloom in very early spring, they are good subjects for the cool sun porch. However, growing them in warm rooms is very difficult because they are the favorite hosts of several insect pests, especially whiteflies.
Since bloom is at its height in late spring, blossoming plants can be set out after the danger of frost is past.
Pansy pelargoniums
Pansy pelargoniums are grown through the winter in a cool location in part sun and kept on the dry side until February. Then, as new growth and buds appear, water increases, and they are fed with a complete fertilizer in liquid form.
Watch out for insects and spray promptly if any appear. After bloom, reduce water gradually until all the leaves turn yellow. In summer, the pansy types rest almost completely.
In September, but not before, plants are severely pruned, repotted in loam which is not too rich, and kept in cool quarters with little water until new growth starts up again after the first of the year.