Geranium Care Guide

By Jessica Mcnamara

Mar 10, 2021

Pink geranium flowering plants

Welcome to your Geranium care guide! Here you will find all of our Growers' knowledge of how best to look after your Zonal Geraniums, and what to do if you get stuck.

 

small plant

Plant name: Geranium
Latin name: Geraniaceae Pelargonium
Varieties included: Geranium Savannah 

You can see why these regal geranium are so popular, it’s easy to grow and gives a stunning show of vibrant colours in patio containers, garden borders and beds. You can even keep them in your warm conservatory.

Grow Geraniums with your kids to learn about growing.

Fabulous dark foliage provides a great contrast to the bright coloured flowers.

Geraniums also smell lovely, particularly after being watered. Must be her way of saying thank you!

Bedding plants

Plant type: Bedding (annual)
Hardiness: Tender
What does this mean? Geraniums pelargoniums flowers plants really don’t like the cold, so you should wait until the frost has passed to plant them. Unlike hardy geranium and other hardy plants you will need to bring them indoors in the sunlight to keep them warm and they will be so thankful and they make wonderful house plants.

 

plant in soil

Before You Start

If you are planting in a garden container, make sure it is clean and has drainage holes in the base. You will need a good quality compost, trowel, watering-can and gloves may also be useful. Maybe a motivational speech or two…You can do this!

 

 

 

plant in pot

Planting Guide

When planting directly into a garden bed or border it is often best to lay out your plants still in the pots so you can make sure you plant them in the best place to get the overall visual impact you are wanting.

Once you have decided where the plant is going dig a hole a little bit bigger than the pot size in the garden bed / border.

Next, take the plant out of the pot. This can be done easily by squeezing the sides of the pot between your thumb and fingers, then releasing your grip on the pot. This helps the roots come away from the pot.

Then hold the plant by the base of the stem, close as possible to the pot and remove the plastic pot. Hold your plant by the root ball and position in the middle of the hole.

The top of the compost around the plant should be a little lower than the level of the bed / border. If you need to dig a little deeper take the plant out and make the hole a bit deeper.

Once the Geranium plant fits in the hole you can twist it around to get the best side of the plant facing forwards. When you are happy with the position fill the hole back in around the root ball and firm the soil back in.

Finally give the garden plant a good water, wherever possible trying to avoid getting water on the flowers.

Avoid planting during the hottest parts of the day. They prefer to be planted during the cooler part of the day as this reduces their stress levels (and nobody wants to see her stressed believe us!)

 

 

sunny garden

Positioning

Geranium plants can be planted successfully in many places. You can often find them in full sun but if it gets too hot, they like to retreat into the shade.

Garden beds and borders give them space to spread. Geraniums are naturally upright compact plants, so they complement plants with a shorter and more naturally spreading habit. They look perfect in hanging baskets and make perfect potted plants.

 

watering can

Watering & Feeding Guide

Give your Geranium a good water when they are first planted. Keep the Geranium moist but not completely saturated. Keep your Geranium fed with multipurpose feed and she will treat you with a greater show of colour.

If the lower leaves start looking a bit yellow & pale, then you’re committing the most common gardening crime…OVER-WATERING. Keep your hands off the watering can (just for a little while at least).

If you notice your plant developing a stronger yellow colour through the foliage, this is a sure sign of nutrient shortage. Feed your garden plant pronto with multipurpose feed and give her all the micro-nutrients she needs to glow again.

Finally, if your geranium leaves look a bit yellow around the edges, you aren’t watering her enough!

Geraniums speak to you with their leaves and tell you what they really want!

 

 


Soil type: Geraniums prefer neutral to alkaline potting soil. Drained soil is always preferred.

 

Medium plant

Top Tips

Deadhead will promote further flowering and encourage branching.

Geranium plants look great in window boxes and cheer up pretty much any outdoor space. They are tolerant to most conditions, which makes them the perfect plant for beginners. They grow very quick, so get the kids involved with growing.

Throughout summer they sit pretty in a garden container, bring them indoors in Autumn because they really don’t like the cold!

Our top growing tip is that stem cuttings can be taken to grow your own baby geranium plants, pretty cool eh?