Easy care for geraniums at home
Geraniums are unpretentious and willingly flowering plants. And yet, if geranium appears, home care becomes the key to the duration of its flowering. It depends only on the care of the grower how long the external attractiveness of the plant will remain, how lush and bright the inflorescences will be.
For two hundred years of cultivation as indoor plants, geraniums have firmly entered the life of Russians. Pink, scarlet, white and variegated umbrella inflorescences of pelargoniums or geraniums can be seen on the windows of city apartments, in summer cottages and on the verandas of rural houses. The flower, which has become truly popular, is in fact a native of South Africa, for whom Russian conditions are not always comfortable.
In nature, wild geraniums are perennial plants:
- with powerful, weakly branching shoots;
- with smooth or slightly pubescent split leaves;
- with umbellate inflorescences, in which up to 20 individual flowers are collected.
The culture is appreciated for the massiveness and duration of flowering, which, with proper care for geraniums at home, lasts from spring to winter. Moreover, many species are quite fragrant, and the docile nature of the plant is its great advantage.
In home conditions, decorative geranium varieties retain their decorative effect for at least 4–5 years. But properly organized care helps to extend the life of a flowering specimen up to ten years or more. How to care for a geranium so that it blooms, remains attractive and healthy for a long time?
Growing conditions and care features so that geraniums bloom
How to care for geraniums at home if there is no way to bring it out into the light, or a lack of lighting threatens the plant in winter? In winter, when keeping on a loggia or on northern windows, it is useful to use special phytolamps... Extending daylight hours to 12-14 hours has a good effect:
- to preserve the shape of the bush;
- on the uniformity of shoot growth and their quality.
In geranium bushes that receive enough light, the newly formed stems have a rich color. The same applies to foliage, which does not become smaller or paler, but remains juicy and bright.
In order for geraniums to bloom, caring for it necessarily involves maintaining a comfortable temperature for the culture in the room. It is best if the air in the room where the pot stands:
- in summer it is warmed up to 22–27 ° C;
- in winter, during the dormant period, it has a temperature of about 12-16 ° C.
Plants are good for airing, but like other indoor crops, they do not like cold drafts. Being next to hot radiators, geraniums will also experience discomfort.
Watering and feeding indoor geraniums for home care
Geranium can do without spraying or additional humidification, but it takes these procedures well. If irrigation of foliage is included in the care of geraniums, as in the photo, at home, then this should be done with warm water that has passed filtration or previously settled. Otherwise, unsightly stains from salt stains will appear on the bright foliage of the plant.
Watering, as the main care measure for geraniums, should be abundant and regular. In summer, it is important to moisten the soil under the bush as soon as signs of dryness of the earthen coma appear. In winter, the intensity of watering is much less. On average, plants are watered more than once every 7-10 days. In this case, the soil should not dry out completely. If the leaves turn yellow on the bush, caring for geraniums at home should be reviewed. Obviously, the plant does not receive enough water, or the roots, feeling an excess of moisture, began to rot.
Geraniums are fast-growing crops that require not only watering, but also the replacement of nutrients selected from the soil. Plant feeding is carried out from March to August, that is, in the midst of active growth and flowering.
To maintain the splendor of the inflorescences, use potash fertilizers, with which geraniums are fed twice a month. If a complex composition is chosen as a top dressing, it is better to give preference to the one with the least nitrogen compounds. This element promotes the growth of green mass, and the growing foliage inhibits the formation and opening of buds.
Geranium pruning and home care in winter and spring
And for experienced florists, and even for beginners, caring for geraniums at home will not seem difficult and time-consuming. But one operation always raises a lot of concerns - this is pruning.
The growth rate of geraniums depends on the species and variety. But in all varieties, as the length of the stem increases, the lower leaves gradually wither and fall off. Greens remain only at the very tops. Inflorescences are also formed here.
As a result, if the shoots are not shortened in time, the geranium turns into a shapeless voluminous bush completely devoid of any attractiveness. To prevent this from happening, in the fall, when the appearance of new flowers stops, geraniums are cut off.
The stronger the pruning included in the care of geraniums at home will be:
- the more new shoots should be expected next spring;
- the greener and thicker the crown of the plant will turn out;
- the more abundant and longer flowering will be.
There are dormant buds on bare stems, so you should not be afraid of deep pruning. Moreover, the growth of geraniums continues even in winter, and some particularly "nimble" plants have to be formed again, but already at the end of February or in the first days of March, until the active growing season begins. Especially important is pruning to zonal geraniums, which are most often found on the windowsills of amateur flower growers. The royal varieties have a slightly different agricultural technique, so such plants are formed more accurately and only in the second year after planting.
In winter, it is better not to prune geraniums for home care, since from December to early February the plant has a dormant period, its defenses and metabolic processes are weakened. Shoots cut off at this time are unsuitable for rooting.
The tops cut from the shoots are not discarded. It is an excellent material for plant propagation and new flowering geraniums. With this method, young specimens completely retain all parental characteristics, and the first flowering is already possible in the first summer after rooting.
In the summer, so that the wilting inflorescences do not drag off the food, they are carefully cut off.
Transplanting geraniums for home care and taking plants to the garden
How to care for a geranium flower at home, if the roots of the plant are completely entwined with a lump, there is little soil left in the pot and a large bush will noticeably wither soon after watering?
In this case, you cannot do without a transplant, which is a real stress for geraniums, as for other domestic plants. It is necessary to transfer the green pet to a new pot carefully, without disturbing the existing earthen coma, and no more than once every two years. Every year you can only add a little fresh substrate.
In order for the flowering of geraniums to be long and plentiful, the plant developed well and gave new shoots, you need:
- loose soil rich in nutrients;
- powerful drainage;
- a small pot, with approximately the same depth and width.
As a substrate, they use ready-made soil for decorative indoor crops, to which a little sand and humus are added, or a mixture is made from equal parts of humus, peat, turf and sand.
If the plant is taken out into the garden for the summer, then it is better not to take it out of its usual container even here. This will help avoid:
- overgrowth of the root system and green mass to the detriment of flowering;
- geranium infection with soil parasites and fungi, which are enough in the garden soil.
And when in the fall, before the onset of cold weather, geraniums are taken back into the room, you cannot immediately put them on the usual window sills to other crops. To ensure the health of the plants and the absence of pests, geraniums are quarantined for a month, and in case of alarming symptoms, they are treated with fungicides and insecticides.
Hello, tell me please, my geranium has not been able to open its buds for a week now, what's wrong with it? Thank.
Sometimes geranium buds do not fully open if the flower was rearranged or turned during flowering. If this did not happen, perhaps the reason is a lack of nutrition, namely, such an element as boron. Feed the geranium with Fertika or with a boric acid solution (1 g of dry powder per 1 liter of water).
Also, see if you can see gnawed holes on these buds? Pests also interfere with flowering.
My two geraniums, red and pink, were planted in the summer at the dacha. The soil there is acidic, geraniums did not grow and bloom well. After giving them I immediately transplanted them into new land, pruned them, expecting that they will grow well. But no. The leaves are small, do not have time to grow and already turn yellow and fall off. I used to have six colors of geraniums without problems, on the same windows. What's wrong with these, please tell me!
Geranium leaves may shrink if the room where it stands is too hot and the air is dry. This also happens in the case of nitrogen starvation of the plant. Try to find a flower in a cooler room and fertilize it.
Slow wilting of a plant also occurs when it is affected by root rot. Here it will be better to discard the old bush, and root young healthy apical cuttings (if any) so as not to lose the variety. By the way, it is recommended to rejuvenate geraniums every 2-3 years so that the leaves do not shrink.
Thank you very much Olga!
All the best to you. I got a bunch of geraniums in this state, it's a pity to throw out Pts, but at the dacha, I think they will bloom beautifully in the summer. Please advise what to do with such long ones now.
I would wait a little longer, and in March I would cut the bushes. The tops can be rooted, and there will be new bushes, but the old geraniums (trimmed), when it gets warmer, can be planted in the flower bed. I usually do this, over the summer the plants on the street grow very well with new shoots and bloom profusely.
Hello! I planted a geranium stalk a year ago. It quickly took root and began to grow like a palm tree - a long trunk. and at the top there are leaves. how to form a bush from it, please tell me.
It's hard to answer exactly without a photo. In any case, geranium lends itself very well to shaping and easily tolerates pruning. If you have it grown into one trunk, just cut it off at the desired height. By the way, the top can be rooted. When the side shoots appear, they will need to be pinched for branching when they grow up a little.
This geranium is called garden antico grows up to one and a half meters and requires support
Olga, thank you very much.You helped me a lot!
Where can geranium cuttings be attached?
Can geraniums be transplanted when they are in bloom?
If according to all the rules, then it is impossible to transplant flowering plants, including geraniums, with the exception of illness and urgent rehabilitation. But to be honest, I often do that. For example, in the summer I planted an old flower in a flower bed, and then cut off the young top (right with the flower) and rooted it. The big geranium has grown up on the street, there is nowhere to take it, but it's a pity to lose the variety. Nothing, got accustomed and grows further. If you are afraid, just load your plant along with a clod of earth - this way the intervention will be minimal.
Why do the leaves turn white?
If you mean geranium, there can be many reasons. Her leaves become pale if there is not enough light or the room is too hot. Also, the loss of rich green color occurs in the case of a lack or excess of fertilizers. But if on the leaves not only the color has changed, but a white bloom has appeared, this is a fungus.