How to Grow Geraniums Easily – Best Pest Control

The Geranium is a true scented garden flower with bright colored blooms all around in the spring. If you are one of those who praise the natural beauty and want to keep the lawn loaded with bright flowers, Geranium is a must-have flower due to its versatile beauty.
So, arrange a garden bed or buy a hanging basket to add its charm at your place as it can perfectly grow in beds, containers, or even in the hanging baskets. Then why delay to grow Geraniums when you have this guide on how to grow Geraniums easily without any pests.
Let’s dig in this super easy guide!

How to grow Geraniums – Simple and easy growth step by step

Growing Geranium is quite easy, either indoors or outdoors, but you have to take care of it when purchased. What you have to do is to pick a pest-free, bright-colored plant with healthy leaves so that your flowers bloom fully without any stress.
Give it the best place with nutrient-rich soil and all the conditions needed to bloom. Here you see how to grow Geraniums.

Select the best place

The first thing to grow Geraniums is to select the best place either for bed or its pot. As it is a sun-loving plant, give it a place with about 5-7 hours of full sun. For hot areas, you may choose a location with a bit of shade. So, the best place would be a sunny morning and a shady afternoon place.

Take good soil

Next, you have to check for the soil. The best soil to grow Geranium must be loose, organically rich, and well-drained to avoid root rot. You can also add peat and perlite if you feel it heavy.

Plant Geraniums

When you have done both checkpoints, it’s time to plant Geranium. Space plants about 8 – 12 inches (20 – 30 cm) apart and at the same depth to minimize the risk of any disease. Make sure to protect these plants from cold and plant after the threat of the last frost has passed.

Geraniums – Different Varieties

Geraniums are showy flowers grown as annuals and equally capable of growing as perennials in extremely warm areas. With over 300 species, there are different varieties of geraniums that you can bloom in your garden.
Here are the most alluring varieties of Geraniums:

• Anne Thomson

• Geranium Rozanne

• Geranium Elke

• Geranium Magnificum

• Geraniums Sanguineum –

This variety of Geraniums is well known due to its cup-shaped flowers of multiple colors. They may be either in pink, white or magenta colors.

• Geraniums Clarkei –

Clarkei is worth growing as its cut foliage adds beauty with white flowers.

• Geraniums Double jewel –

Wonderful geraniums! They are exceptional plant with upright habitat and can grow up to 10 inches (25 cm).

• Geraniums Endressii –

It is an early summer bloomer with cup shaped pink flower and glossy green foliage.

Make a watering schedule

You are almost done with the plantation of Geranium but don’t forget to water at a time for its proper growth. It follows basic watering routine as keep the soil moist by regular watering but not overwater leading to the soggy soil.

Do proper fertilization

It just needs a light fertilizer and fertilizes during active growing months. You may use a water-soluble fertilizer with about half of its strength. Avoid fertilizing in winter.

You may be interested in my other article about “The different types of Garden Fertilizer“.

Organic pest control of Geraniums

Geranium is such a lovely plant that even pests find all possible ways to attack and destroy it. You must be aware of the most common insects and pests of your plants so that you can identify at an early stage and take action.
There are multiple ways you can find to control pests like synthetic chemicals and sprays are available but the healthiest option for the plant and even for nature is organic pest control. You can use organic oils like neem oil or other products like BT products (Bacillus thuringiensis) as a healthy pest control option.

Aphid

Aphids are the most common pests that attack Geraniums and weaken the plant. They are small pear-shaped in different colors of green, red, brown, black, and yellow that hides them on plants. They attack the fancy flower and bright blooms of Geraniums to destroy their beauty. Aphids suck sap from flowers and leaves.
Control:
The most common and effective way against aphids is to spray the plant with a diluted insecticidal soap solution. Mix some neem oil with an insecticidal (gentle) soap in proper proportions to make an effective solution. Now spray this insecticidal solution about every seven days, if needed, or until you see no aphids on Geranium flower and leaves.
Or you can just let the lady beetles take care of them naturally!

Read “How to get rid of Brown Marmorated stink bug?” to learn how you can prepare the Neem oil spray recipe.
Also read “How to get rid of aphids” to learn on how you can catch aphid transporters, ants. It’s a different pest control method, but more or less achieves the same result.

Caterpillars

Several types of caterpillars can attack Geraniums but budworms attack the flower bud and shoots of the Geraniums. They feed on flower by making holes in the buds that you can also see in your Geranium if it is unluckily attacked by the caterpillar. These holes render to bloom the flower making it dull and less attractive.
Control:
For organic pest control of caterpillars, you can use BT spray that is healthy to fight against Geraniums without causing any harm to the plant or people. Bacillus bacteria in BT spray are deadly for caterpillars and stop to crawl on the flower.

Mealy bugs

Mealy bugs are also the insects of Geranium that cause major damage if attack. They are covered by a protective cottony mass that they secrete. Mealybugs particularly attack soft tissues of stem or at joints if leaves.
Control:
Controlling mealy bugs is not a big deal but important is to identify them and then work for their control. You can use simple cotton swabs dipped in water or alcohol to take control on these bugs.