All About Pelargoniums

All About Pelargoniums – (Common name: Geranium)

WHAT IS A PELARGONIUM?

Often called by the common name of geranium, the genus Pelargonium is a wide range of species, selections, and hybrids, which are wood-based perennials, some of them shrubby, and almost all of them originally from South Africa. We now have many hybrids and selections.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PELARGONIUMS

• Most come from South Africa
• Most can endure light frost but not hard freezes
• All bear asymmetrical flowers with 5 non-identical petals, two pointing in one direction and three in the other.
• They bear flowers in clusters.

TRUE OR BOTANICAL GERANIUMS

• Many are hardy (can go through cold winters.)
• Flowers are symmetrical and have five identical, overlapping petals carried singly
• They bear flowers in small clusters.
• Leaves are roundish, lobed, kidney-shaped, or deeply cut.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS WITH PELARGONIUMS—

DURING THE LAST TEN YEARS —

• Now often called by correct botanical name.
• Introduction of Species geraniums into local garden scene.
• Name confusion changes to name-clarity.

ONGOING CHANGES—

• New varieties annually
• Old species types rediscovered
• The best ones survive, others are superceded by still better   selections and hybrids.

BASIC TYPES OF PELARGONIUM

Pelargonium x domesticum—Lady Washington pelargonium, Martha Washington, Regal P. x hortorum—common geranium (zonal geranium)

• Types once called zonal geranium
• Upright types with solid green leaves, including hybrids with compact or dwarf habit
• Variegated geraniums: Fancy-leaved geraniums, Color-leaf geraniums

P. peltatum—ivy geraniums

• Trailing geraniums—many new types that bloom year round
• Uses: ground cover or hanging basket
• Some have scented leaves
• Old ones bloom mainly in spring

Species pelargoniums

• P. cordifolium
• Heart-shaped leaves.
• P. sidoides
• gray, mounding, dark purple or wine-colored flowers
• New selection with larger, darker flowers
• P. ‘Splendid’ (silvery gray, upper petals nearly black)
• (P. tricolor, P. violareum)

Scented geraniums—many aromatic species, hybrids, and selections often growing 1 to 3 feet and spreading

USES: Herb gardens, flower gardens, rock gardens, bank covers, window boxes, hanging baskets (trailing types), ground covers in frost-free zones.

COOKING:  Jelly, iced tea, mulled wine, cakes, muffins, and cookies.

FRAGRANCE:

• Dried —potpourri and sachets,
• Fresh—In linens and clothing
• Soft types like P. tomentosum as a book mark
• Or to perfume a letter.

P. quercifolium—Almond geranium
P. odoratissimum—Apple geranium
P.    nervosum —Lime geranium
P.x fragrans ‘Nutmeg’—Nutmeg geranium
P. tomentosum—Peppermint geranium
Good, mounding habit
Spreading ground cover

ROSE GERANIUMS:

P. ‘Clorinda’ —Unique shrub, scented, rose-type, (not a species.)

USES:

• Makes  fabulous rose-geranium cake or muffins if you put leaves in the bottom of a Bundt cake pan and fill with yellow cake mix.
• Excellent for decorating food plates because it’s non-poisonous and lasts for hours.
• Good roadside plant.

P. capitatum
P. graveolens
P. ‘Lady Plymouth’

LEMON GERANIUMS Several named selections and species including:

• P.crispum
• P. ‘Prince Rupert’

CARE:

SOIL: good, fast-draining

FERTILIZER

• In good fertile soil, little or none
• In poor sandy soil or containers
• 14-14-14—Apex Blue, slow-release
• Peter’s Liquid 20-20-20—(weak solution)
• Twice a year during growing season, more often in  containers

PRUNING

• Deadhead
• Pinch tips of young plants to encourage branching
• Practice “Progressive Pruning”
• Leave a leaf on every good branch you cut
• Don’t let hired gardeners clean off all stems so plants stick up on bare trunks.

PEST CONTROL

• BUDWORM IS WORST
• CONTROL WITH BT.
• GET A FRESH BOTTLE
• Spray just before and/or after first full moon in april. this is when the moth that lays the bud- worm eggs flies. (If it rains that night you may get a reprieve.) SPRAY AT NEXT FULL MOON OR FIRST SIGN OF DAMAGE.
• Few other pests if grown in right place
• Aphids, white flies, spider mites
• Too much shade can lead to pest problems
• (or too much sun for P. hortorum)
• Crowding, failing to clean and prune plants.
• If you haven’t pruned all year, do the job in October !