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What Are the Best Tips for Growing Geraniums?

Alex Tree
Alex Tree

The best tips for growing geraniums are to place the plants in full sun, watch them for signs of disease, and choose whatever is most convenient when it comes to deciding between seeds and plants. This type of flower requires a lot of sun, plus well-drained soil, or else it will eventually wilt and die. It is not prone to disease, nor does it have many pests, but geraniums can fall ill and need to have leaves or whole flowers cut and thrown away. One of the biggest decisions to make when growing geraniums is whether to grow them from seed. This choice depends on the preferences and time constraints of the gardener, but growing from seed is often more fulfilling for some gardeners.

Caring for geraniums can be fairly basic; they need full sun and well-drained soil. This means they will not thrive indoors unless placed near a window that gets a lot of sun, and they can die if over-watered. Growing geraniums is not complicated unless the grower decides to cultivate the plants, winter them, or has problems with pests or diseases. In fact, they can grow in any kind of soil as long as it is not consistently over-watered. There are more than 400 species of geraniums, but overall, the plants are considered easy to grow aside from a few specific kinds of geranium known for poor blooming.

Woman with a flower
Woman with a flower

When growing geraniums, a gardener must keep an eye out for pests and plant diseases. Geraniums are fairly resilient and do not come with as many problems as some other home gardening plants. Still, if a geranium begins to wilt or fade unexpectedly, it should be removed from the garden. Quickly removing a struggling plant is one way of stopping the spread of disease or pests. In some cases, sprays are available, which can be a good option if the problem is widespread in the garden.

Geraniums can be obtained in both flower and seed form. Seeds are less expensive but more time-consuming to grow geraniums from. On the other hand, the gardener can provide the healthiest environment during the plant’s young life. Geraniums that have already sprouted are not always healthy, either because of neglect on the gardener’s end or damage done when the plant was shipped to a store from the nursery. If growing geraniums that were purchased sprouted, it helps to buy directly from the nursery that grew the plant.

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      Woman with a flower