• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home Garden Companion

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop
  • Privacy Policy

Pelargoniums- or “geraniums” to you

20.04.07 | Ilona Erwin | No Comments


I have a long standing love affair with these plants. And I know I am not alone.

The flowers we commonly call geraniums are actually Pelargoniums by name, but we stubbornly continue to call them what we want to, and that is how they are sold in garden centers and nurseries everywhere.

Pelargonium Flower Types

There are several special kinds which fall into the following groups:

  • Angel hybrids,
  • Dwarf hybrids,
  • Ivy-leafed hybrids,
  • Regal hybrids,
  • Scented-leafed Hybrids,
  • Unique hybrids,
  • and Zonal hybrids,

-and I have tried many of them.

My favorites remain the scented ones and the flashy looking garden geraniums that, though they are perennials, are grown in my climate as annuals. How duplicitous of them!

Equal in enjoyment are the less obvious visually, but more seductive in fragrance: the scented-leafed type.

Those plants known as ‘scented geraniums’ have a special place in my heart. They come in an array of fragrance mimicry such as rose, chocolate mint, nutmeg, etc.

For Hanging Baskets

Both vining geraniums, used for hanging containers, and scented geraniums have smaller, looser flower umbels. The varieties for hanging containers have bright colors and their leaves often have an ivy form.

In contrast, most of the scented geraniums are subtle pastels. Many of the scented ones make up for that with variegated foliage. It is the lovely and interesting smells that are the attraction, though. As mentioned before, from rose to chocolate, to citrus, and many more scents that can be either familiar or obscure. It is an olfactory adventure!

These geraniums belong to the family Geraniaceae, and are native to South Africa; they like sun, but some grow in part sun, and like magnesium in the rich, loamy, slightly acidic, well drained soil they prefer. (Reportedly too much nitrogen reduces the scent of the fragrant ones, though).

Bedding Geraniums

The other Pelargonium type I favor, the bedding geraniums or “zonal”, usually find a place in my containers and dooryard gardens.

As a note on companion planting:

Reputedly the white flowered ones are supposed to stave off Japanese beetles, and companion plant with roses…but I am sure they would do nothing against the type of infestation of Japanese beetles I suffered last year.

Front Yard Color

I favor the bright reds, but have often used the salmon and pink colors in conjunction with blues and whites in the front entry dooryard garden. They do well in the hot dry conditions of a Midwest summer, and don’t ask for alot of attention while producing a parade of flowering beauty all summer.

I have overwintered my plants in times past, but had the bad luck ( due to my own lazy nature) to lose them, so this year I will begin again to collect my favorites: maroon flowered ivy leaved one, deep red zonals, and a collection of scented ones.
A favorite poem,

Geraniums In My Window

Explore More:

    • Scented geraniums
    • White, True Geraniums

 

  • The Garden Helper tips

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

← Previous Post
Ol’ John Brown’s Garden – Gardening & the Almanac – PrimeTap.com
Next Post →
Weekend Garden Report

About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Primary Sidebar

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Visit for a Spell

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings
Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening
What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal
Journal, Planner and Log Book
buy quality plants

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Standouts

August Gardening: Ten Suggestions

What are your ten top choices for perennial plantings?

ilonagarden

With village lights With village lights
Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄 Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄
Instagram post 17935013548845771 Instagram post 17935013548845771
Instagram post 17981374354427684 Instagram post 17981374354427684
Instagram post 17865517706595888 Instagram post 17865517706595888
Gift of flowers by my bedside Gift of flowers by my bedside
#mockorange #juneflowers #ohio #mockorange #juneflowers #ohio
Instagram post 18224713828022497 Instagram post 18224713828022497
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Join Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Your Site Name

Hazel Theme by Code + Coconut