Geranium Flowers

Plant Basics

Common or garden geraniums, the kind you typically find at nurseries and garden centers, have medium-sized, ball-shaped blooms. These are comprised of numerous petals layered on one another to create their iconic spherical shape. 

When it comes to colors, geraniums are available in large variety of hues. Red, which is perhaps the most popular choice, often brings to mind summer’s patriotic holidays. You’ll also find pink, salmon, fuchsia, blue, violet and white on the list of colors—along with plenty of beautiful green foliage that helps each color to stand out.

Geraniums should be planted after the threat of a frost has passed in your area. They will typically bloom from spring through fall if they receive the proper maintenance (see the section below). 

Getting the Most Out of Your Geranium Flowers

As with any plant, proper care and maintenance is key. One of the first steps is making sure your geranium receives enough sunlight. While six hours is the minimum recommended time, longer exposure will help to nourish the plant in cooler zones. As long as you are keeping the plant watered, do not worry about overexposure. 

Which brings us to the next key step in maintenance: watering. Geraniums should have moist, but not soggy soil. It’s a balance. If the soil is dry and hard, the plant will be deprived and blooms may begin to fall or the overall appearance of the plant may start to look weak and sickly. If you overwater your geraniums, you run the risk of root rot, which could mean there will be no blooms at all on your plant. If you’re having trouble getting your geranium to thrive, arm yourself with this knowledge and keep a close eye on your watering practices to see if adjustments will help. 

Another key to long-lasting and continuous blooms is deadheading. Remove any dead flowers from the plant as soon as you see them. This will encourage new growth. You might also consider cutting your geraniums back if you start to notice that the stems are growing tall but not producing an abundance of blooms. This often happens in midsummer. Cutting them back can encourage new growth with the production of blooms. 

Finally, you may be wondering about adding a fertilizer to your geraniums. If you like to fertilize your plants, water-soluble fertilizer that is a 20-20-20 mix can be a great solution. Container gardens may benefit more from fertilizer than flowers that are planted in beds, depending on soil and placement. Too much or too little fertilizer can also be a key reason you aren’t seeing the blooms you hoped to see. So, again, monitor this and apply only when needed.