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Growing Geraniums

For over 300 years, gardeners have enjoyed the continuously renewing color of geraniums in the garden. Bright colors, perky flower heads, and contrasting foliage have made them increasingly popular. Geraniums come in every flower color, except blue and yellow. Their diversity of flower form and color, growth habits, and garden requirements make them highly adaptable for home gardeners.

Zonal Geraniums

So-called because many of them have zones or patterns in the center of the leaves, these plants of the Pelargonium genus are the ones most people recognize as geraniums. Varieties with self-branching habit and compact growth make tidy, well-shaped plants with a show of color all summer long. Some of the varieties have unusually dark green foliage which makes a particularly striking contrast to the colorful flower heads held above the foliage. Semi-double flower types are highly desirable because they resist weather damage well and are not as subject to shattering as are singles.

Many of the new zonal geranium varieties (Pelargonium x hortorum) have been bred for free flowering, earliness, compactness and self-branching characteristics making them particularly good plants for every geranium use, from planting beds to container plants for porch and patio.

Ivy Leaf Geraniums

Ivy-leafed geraniums have been developed from Pelargonium peltatum. In Europe, over 45% of all geraniums produced are ivy geraniums. Ivy geraniums bear semi-double flowers in colors from white through all the pastels of pink to red. Plants are particularly valuable for use in container plantings, hanging baskets and window boxes where their flowering character provides soft effects. Traditionally, they've been used alone, but in recent years the trend has been to combine them with other flowers such as bachelor buttons and ageratum in mixed plantings. The key to these plantings is fullness--one or more kinds of flowers for a vertical line, lower growing plants for mass, and trailing varieties such as ivy geraniums to drape over container edges for softness and color.

Ivy geraniums prefer full sun and an eastern exposure where temperatures generally remain below 80 degrees F, but can grow well and bloom in dappled shade where temperatures go higher. For container plantings, top dress with a slow-release fertilizer to provide nutrient needs. Water is critical in container plantings, even more so in hanging baskets where all parts of the container are exposed to air movement.

Cascades

Breeding work has brought about a new class of geraniums called cascades (Pelargonium sp.). Cascade varieties are the ultimate container plants so heavily covered with blooms that the foliage becomes hidden by the blossoms. Cascades are very popular in Europe where they are widely used for balcony plantings, window boxes and other container plantings. They also make outstanding ground cover plantings where you want bloom all summer long. Use them on slopes or in ground beds.

Plant in full sun for the most bloom, but cascade geraniums are also delighful in partial shade or dappled shade. The plants are self-branching; each one becomes a mound of color, flowing over the edges of containers to soften the lines and enhance the plantings. The plants are also self-cleaning, which means that spent flower heads drop away when finished blooming. Varieties range in height from tall (24 inches) to very compact kinds which may not exceed 12 inches in length. Fertilize and water regularly to produce a great crop.

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