Episode: #12 18/11/06
Presenter: Judy Horton

If you want long lasting colour for your summer garden, you will find nothing that will do a better job than some cheerful geraniums (pelargonium cv. Zonal Hybrid Cultivar? Series).

They are technically called pelargoniums but it is usually only the experts call them that. For the rest of us, they are our beloved geraniums, probably the world?s most popular potted plant. They are almost un-killable but they will always look a lot better if they are given some basic care.

So what do these plants need to keep them looking at their best? Well for starters, Judy recommends growing them in a pot. They will have guaranteed good drainage and they will be easy to move around when you want to show them off or put them in a sunnier spot. Geraniums sulk if they are in too much shade.

You will often hear that geraniums don?t need feeding, but that is not true. While they won?t flower well if they get too much nitrogen, a balanced fertiliser like Thrive Flower & Fruit is ideal to keep them healthy and ?blooming? wonderful.

Probably the most important maintenance job is regular pruning. Use your fingers to pinch back new growth and trim them all over with secateurs once or twice a year.

The great thing about pruning geraniums is that you get some more plants for free because they are some of the easiest plants to strike from cuttings. Just tidy the bottom and poke in the piece. You can use a bit of rooting hormone if you like as it will improve your chances of success, but they are pretty good anyway.

Rust is the disease that is most likely to cause problems for geraniums. It is described as measles for these plants and they certainly end up all spotty when they are badly affected. Baycor does a good job of preventing this problem, or you can use your Rose Gun. In fact it is a good idea to give your geraniums a squirt every time you spray your roses.

Watch out for caterpillars on your geraniums, too. There is even one that loves to chew the buds and flowers. Rose Gun can help with that too, or you can make night time forays with a torch and catch the grubs in the act.

Featured Products

Thrive Soluble Fruit and Flower

• Complements Thrive Soluble all purpose plant food.
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Yates Clonex Purple Rooting Hormone Gel

• Hormone gel for promoting root growth in softwood and semi hardwood cuttings
• A unique and powerful blend of nutrients, vitamins, mineral hormones and anti-microbial agents in a gel base.
• Easy to use.

Bayer Baycor Garden Fungicide Rose & Ornamental Spray

• Broad spectrum fungicide - controls a wide range of diseases
• The active penetrates into the plant tissue.
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• Easy to use aerosol formulation - no mixing required and easy to spray underneath plant foliage.

Yates Rose Gun

• Controls various insects, mites and diseases on roses and ornamentals
• Controls the most common rose pest & disease problems.
• Highly effective combination of a low toxic synthetic pyrethoid insecticide and a systemic broad spectrum fungicide.
• The insecticide works via both contact and stomach action, and the fungicide is absorbed into the plant's system and is translocated around the plant to control disease - works from the inside out.
• Controls mites and whitefly.
• Easy-to-use trigger pack - no mixing required, no measuring, no mess.