Container-Grown Geraniums

Of all the flowers known for being at home in containers, one of the most popular is the geranium.  Since these plants are profuse bloomers and they have a neat, compact growing habit, they are perfect as potted beauties, in addition to being a lush color burst in any landscape bed or walkway. 

Geranium plants prefer a day of full sun, but they will thrive indoors in a bright window as well as outdoors.  So, choose your planter box, pot or other container (making sure it has proper drainage to prevent soil rot at the bottom), fill it with rich potting soil, add your favorite geranium, provide it plenty of sunlight, and then prepare to be dazzled. 

You can enhance the container-potted geranium with accents like tall, spikey Dracaena in the center of the planting, or asparagus fern or other trailing plants like Sweet Potato or Vinca Vine around the outer edges of the pot.  Since Geraniums flower continually and abundantly throughout the warm season, they do best with only foliage accents and not competing flowers in the same pot.

Regal Geraniums are available in a palette of rich, deep colors, including Velvet Red, Maroon, Burgundy, Black (which is really an intense, dark red), Double-hued Pink, and Clarina, a two-toned violet-colored flower.  They also are available in delicate pinks and lilacs.

Ivy Geraniums come in a rich dark burgundy appropriately named Merlot, Ruby Red and Salmon Rose.  Stars & Stripes Ivy Geranium and Sangria Ivy Geranium are bi-color, semi-double flowers.  All have a mounding habit and look neat and lush in a large pot.

Some geraniums are beloved for their foliage as much as their flowers.  There are varieties featuring scented greenery, with fragrances as interesting as Chocolate Mint, Citronella, Ginger and Cedar-Eucalyptus.  Some specialty varieties have brilliantly colored leaves, with hues ranging from yellow-lime to rich glossy emerald, and variegated with contrasting shades of cream, white, rust, gold or rings of red.

As a container plant, the geranium will thrive as a perennial, if allowed to winter indoors in a sunny window.  It will undergo a mild period of dormancy but can even flower in the off season, if conditions are right.  Whether indoors or out, make sure to turn your container occasionally so all sides get equal sun exposure, to allow the plant to grow symmetrically.

The biggest advantage of potting your geraniums is that you can continue to enjoy them indoors, long after the first frost has zapped the rest of your annual flowers.

The other obvious advantage is that you can surround yourself with color where you don’t have landscape beds available, like on porches, decks or patios.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Growing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.