How To Grow Geraniums

Now, these are commonly known as geraniums but they are an actual plant, Patagonia. So, don't be confused. There are loads of different varieties of Patagonia's and you've got these variegated leaves with different colours.

You've got these ivy leaves type geranium which looks great in a hanging basket because they trail like this one here. And you've also got scented geraniums, they don't produce as many flowers but their leaves are absolutely gorgeous and aromatic, so when you brush past them, they'll give off a really lovely scent. Now, today, I'm going to just show you how to plant one of these geraniums in a hanging basket.

Now, ideally, you'd want several of these around the edge and then maybe a more upright variety in the middle. So, you just need to make a depression in the soil, making sure that it is large enough to take the plant that you're going to put in. Again, put your fingers over the top of the soil to protect it so you don't damage the surface, be very gentle when you take the pot off, so you can see these stem cutting roots around the outside.

Pop your geranium in. I like to put them in at a slight angle to give them a chance to grow over and then pat down the soil around them. Ferment it and then give them really good water.

That plant then will fill out and grow and eventually get as big as this one. Then throughout the season, what you want to do is you want to pick off any dead leaves and any faded flowers as soon as they are finished. This keeps the plant healthy and it also keeps it flowering.

Now, they are not very hungry, they're Mediterranean flowers, so you don't need to put them in a very rich composting place, they like something that's a little bit deader and a little bit drier. Again, with watering, you don't want to water them too severely, they don't like sitting in water. An actual fact, they quite like it if you leave them to almost dry out in between watering, it seems to stress them into flowering much more prolifically.

You can give geraniums feed, a liquid tomato feed every now and again throughout the season. Now as I said, they are Mediterranean plants, so they don't like being out in cold and wet. So, come winter time, you really want to overwinter them in a greenhouse or you can take her seeds and those plants then will go on to produce other plants the following year.

If you're overwintering them in a greenhouse, you might want to cut them back to encourage the growth in the roots and then come the following season, they'll start to shoot again. Once there's no risk of frost, you can then plant them out. You can plant them in the ground in sort of an annual base.

But they do really, really well in pots and that's how you grow geraniums. .