[loverflow]

"I bought a beautiful hanging basket of red geraniums. It was loaded with blooms, the prettiest hanging basket I had ever seen. I hung it on the front porch and after a month, it isn't so pretty anymore. I even took it down and placed it in the direct sun and removed all the dead leaves.

Do geraniums need full sun all day? How often should geraniums be watered? DH tells me that you should never get geranium leaves wet as they will die. He said his mother always watered from the bottom, but our DIL said her mother hangs her geraniums outside and they get rained on. What is the truth in this and what am I doing wrong? I now have two blooming flowers and before I had about 15 or 20 blooming flowers. "

[jandr425]

"You probably have zonal Pelargoniums. Or if they trail then you might have Ivy Pelargoniums.

They appreciate plenty of sun. In really hot areas, a little shade in the afternoon will stop them going dormant in summer, but I think you will be OK in full sun. They will drink quite a lot of water, but absolutely don't like to be sitting in wet soil. Allow the soil to get dry before watering. Don't worry about them, they have to be sitting in dust before they wilt. The leaves will rot if you keep them wet too much, although the do grow successfully outside even in England. Keep the leaves dry when watering if that is practical. Some fertiliser is good, especially in a basket, use a liquid feed in the water."

[loriaangel]

Hi..........,
Geraniums should be set in the soil no deeper than the depth they were growing in the pot. If possible, plant more shallow. If you plant too deeply, stem rot will usually kill the plant. Gardeners often like to experiment and keep over their geraniums from year to year. This is possible by taking cuttings from your geraniums in late August and rooting them. Geraniums can also be dug, trimmed back to one half their original height, repotted and placed in a sunny window for the winter months. Some people also save geraniums by digging them, removing soil and hanging from the rafters in the basement on hooks.
_________________
Flowers For