Looking for a few tips and tricks to keep you geraniums gorgeous and flowering big all summer long? Geraniums are one of the all-time classic flowering annuals for growing in flowerbeds, containers and hanging baskets. Their large brackets of flowering petals can brighten up any area of the landscape. Especially when you consider you can grow them in wide variety of colors that fit any need.
Geraniums bloom in red, white, pink, salmon, and a whole slew of variegated combinations. And with just a few tried and true methods of care, you can keep those blooms lasting from late spring to late fall. Here is a look at 5 simple secrets to help you keep your geraniums blooming and booming all season long! When it comes to keeping geraniums productive, there are two important factors to consider when it comes to the dirt they grow in.
Soil quality, and soil mass. As in, the soil needs to be fertile enough to provide the nutrients needed for strong growth. And, there has to be enough soil to promote extensive root structure. Geraniums thrive in rich, fertile and well draining soil. It allows their roots to expand with ease and to absorb nutrients quickly. And not just the nutrients found in the soil, but those provided through additional fertilizing through the season.
Both of which will keep your geraniums from producing new blooms and from flowering. And, as such, geraniums have no dormant season, so people are not putting them to sleep for the winter, they are pushing them to the edge of death and then yanking them back in the Spring. All of these things are a testament to how tough geraniums actually are, but they are an annual, not a perennial, so they do not die back and begin new growth each year, they continue growing from the same plant structure.
So, gardeners will see that after saving them for a few years, they will begin to lose vigor, and start having smaller leaves and smaller, less frequent blooms. The best thing that you can do, if you would like to save them, is to take a few cuttings and generate, new, fresh plants in the fall, that you can grow indoors over the winter and take back out in the Spring.
That is basically what we do, here in the greenhouse, starting with new plants from cuttings each year in the late summer, for the next year. Just like in the summer, you will want to water your geranium sparingly and with less plant and shorter days and less light, that might end up being every week or ten days. Even so, you may get a little spindly growth, as the plant reaches for the light, but do not worry about this.
Just let the plant grow until the first or second week of March and then cut it back again, to have a bushier plant when it is ready to go back outside. And speaking of outside, get them out as early as possible, even if you have to protect them at night. Give one or more of these methods a try; it will be a good gardening experiment, at the very least and what do you have to lose? This is a physiological condition that is call oedema uh-DEEM-a and is caused by cells in the leaves that burst because the plant takes up too much moisture without transpiring.
Because ivy geraniums have a waxy texture, it is common to them and not to regular garden geraniums, that have a thinner leaf that is able to transpire. Indoor geraniums can bloom year round but they should be situated away from heaters and air conditioners.
Regular deadheading can help to prolong the bloom time of geraniums and it also keeps the plants looking tidy. Prune the plants back by about one third to encourage new growth and lots of blooms the following year. Give your plants a feed with a balanced fertilizer in early spring to encourage the plant to bloom abundantly. Geraniums contain the essential oils linalool and geraniol, which are toxic to dogs, cats and horses. Scented geranium flowers and leaves are safe for humans to eat and they make an interesting addition to salads.
The flowers should be dried out in about three weeks and you can spray them with hairspray to help preserve them. Geranium leaves will turn yellow if they are getting watered too little or too much. If this happens, move the geraniums to a sunnier location and attempt to even out the watering.
After flowering in hot summers, the foliage may also turn yellow if the soil is allowed to completely dry out. Cutting back the foliage can help to revitalize the plants. Getting the most out of your geraniums isn't hard, and you will be rewarded with some truly beautiful flowers and foliage for your efforts. Home Guides Garden Gardening.
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