Geraniums Gardening Landscaping Caring Tips

Geraniums Gardening Landscaping Caring Tips.

The scented leaved geraniums mix together a group that’s well known for the scent of its crushed leaves.

Even if the flowers are considerably smaller and not that beautiful then the ones from zonal, this aspect is not that important.

We talk here about the peppermint that has hairy, large, velvety leaves; the nutmeg famous for its small white flowers and round leaves; the rose with toothed, deeply-cut leaves; the pine-scented with big finely-cut leaves and the lemon-scented that has small leaves on compact plants.

The Prince Rupert is a lemon-scented with coloured white-and-green leaves. It is very important to know that a well-drained and light loam is perfect for scented-leaved geraniums.

Lady Washington and Ivy-leaved Types

If they grow under the best conditions the ivy-leaved geraniums, despite the fact that are trailing plants, are probably the most generous flowering plants. They love the light and the dry medium and that’s why it’s perfect for them to grow in places like California where the days are worm and the nights are cool.

Many people these days hang on their posts, porches, garages or trees window boxes with vinca and English ivy but from now on they can start decorate their home with ivy-leaved geraniums.

You can choose from lilac-white to pink Alliance, the lavender Santa Paula and the double pint Galilee.

The well-seaming geraniums are the Lady Washington. This is a very difficult to grow plant and they also prefer sunny days and warm night while they must be protected from all-day sun and wind.

If you want various types of flowers in your garden you can choose from Easter Greeting, Lucy Becker, Gay Nineties, and Marie Rober. Only during Easter you can buy Lady Washington geraniums and plant them in your garden.

Cactus and Climbing

If you have a pot plant collection and you’re a person that loves the geraniums then cactus and climbing geraniums are definitely a “must have”. It’s very interesting how they have the most beautiful and bizarre forms and flowers.

You can choose between the knotted, heart-leaved and rue-scented stork-bills, the parsley-leaved Otidia, the prickly-stalked geranium and the climbing square-stalked Jenkinsonia.

Sun is important

There’s no secret that the geraniums dislike shadows and humidity. You can grow them in pots or boxes on terraces with at least 8 hours sun a day or on the south, west or east side of your house. Even so their flowers last only for a little time.


If kept on the north side of the house, your plants will grow beautifully.
If you live in the city you should consider to protect the flowers from the direct sunlight. By doing that, you will cut back a little from the middle-day-heat.

Soil and Potting

Anywhere you put them, in pots, planters and boxes, the geraniums will look great. If drainage is good, they can thrive in any soil mixture. In order for them to blossom you must take good care of them. You should control the nitrogen level or lush foliage and shortly the effects will be seen.

It will be great if for each bushel you will combine three parts good garden loam and one part leaf peat moss, mold or compost plus a five-inch pot of bone meal. You can always add some sand if the garden loam is a little bit too heavy but in case of an acid soil you will need lime.

The perfect recipe for a good garden soil consists in 5-10-5 fertilizer + bone meal. It is also very important for you to use a low-nitrogen fertilizer in liquid form during the growing season.

The free passage of water must be taken into consideration when potting because too much or not enough water can harm the flower. You must soak the soil and stop watering until the plants requires it.

If there’s too much water, the plant will have yellow leaves but if the soil is dry they will turn wilt and discolour and all this causes legginess.

If you want your plant to grow beautiful, from time to time you should turn the containers.

You must also remove all faded blossoms or dry leaves. If the center florets of the heads are damaged by the rain you should pull them off.

To sum all up, the geraniums are pest free but just in case of danger you must have some malathion or lindane prepared.

Video - Potting Geranium Cuttings