What it is
Geranium (Pelargonium) (Pelargonium species) is in the Geraniaceae family. The classic pot and windowbox flower - drought-tough, long-blooming, and easy to root from stem cuttings.
How to grow it
It wants full sun to part shade, water it low, and give it well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-7.0. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly Cuttings root. Tender; grown as annual/perennial.
How it's used
Geranium (Pelargonium) is used: ornamental; scented types for potpourri.
🔎 How to identify it
- Rounded soft scalloped leaves
- Often scented foliage
- Clustered flower heads
Edibility
How to grow & propagate geranium (pelargonium)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate geranium (pelargonium)
Geranium (Pelargonium) is grown from seed. Start it in the season it favors, keep the seedbed evenly moist until it's up, and thin to give each plant room to size up.
Growing geranium (pelargonium) in Texas
Give it full sun to part shade and well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly cuttings root before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: scented-leaf types culinary in small amounts.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.