Growing Geranium Flowers
Beautify Your Home Garden with Dainty Geraniums
Geraniums flaunt huge, beautiful flowers that can instantly doll up your flower garden. Its showy, bright-colored flowers and general hardiness make this ornamental plant a popular choice when cultivating a home garden.
You can feast your eyes on these gorgeous blooms from early summer until frost, if planted correctly. In fact, new cultivars exhibit almost shatter-proof blooms that endure blustery weather conditions such as heavy rains and wind.
However, despite geranium’s toughness and extremely drought tolerant properties, they can’t withstand a very cold weather, thus they are susceptible to frost. Read on below to for our full guide on growing geraniums.
Geranium Propagation
It is possible to propagate geraniums from cuttings. In fact you can keep geraniums from year to year by obtaining cuttings in late August.
You can dig the plants, trim back to half their original height and re-pot them in a sunny location during the frost. Other people keep geraniums by digging up the plants, taking away the soil and hanging the plants on hooks in the basement. Keep in mind though that this method requires cool temperatures (approximately 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit) and high humidity of 85-90 percent.
How to Grow Geraniums
Perfect Timing – First off, geraniums will flourish wonderfully if planted at the correct time. So what’s the best time to grow geraniums? It is when the temperature will not fall below 50 degrees. Spring is the ideal season to set out plants because all the hazard of frost has passed. Geraniums love the sun! The optimal sun exposure per day is 6 to 19 hours.
Good Location – Scout out location with full sunlight exposure for best flower production. The soil must be light, well-aerated and porous. Geraniums cannot tolerate a planting site with poor drainage so do not use clay. These beautiful ornamental plants grow better when their roots have more room to spread out. A potting soil that is heavy on peat bottom moss can do the trick. Avoid pea gravel or rocks in the bottom of your pots or planters.
Proper Care – Geraniums can be obtained as rooted cuttings or as seedlings in pots or plastic trays. Plant shallower as setting the plants deeply into the soil can rot the stem and kill the plants. Listen here. Be cautious not to damage the stem because this allows diseases to enter. Water the plants well after planting. Geraniums love water and you can’t overwater a geranium! However, keep your geraniums away from sprinklers because they cannot tolerate excessive water on their leaves and flowers.
Fertilizers – Since the moist soil cannot provide sufficient nutrients, you may use liquid fertilizers such as 15-30-15 or 20-20-20. Take note of the proper quantity and applications as stated on the label. Water the plants, especially the foliage after applying to ensure proper dispersion. This will also guarantee that the fertilizer reaches the roots.
Geraniums are dainty flowers with tough qualities. They are easy to grow and keep, yet offer long-lasting beauty in your home garden. No wonder why geraniums became so famous all over the world.
