This weekend at my MIL's home I noticed her over-wintered geranium in full bloom on an indoor shelf. She has the best luck with geraniums and I asked her how often she waters it in the summer. So now I know ONE thing I've been doing wrong with mine - watering them to death!! I am determined to have nice potted geraniums this year on my porch....PLEASE share your secrets with me! I know my lack of success is just a matter of doing a few things wrong....I just don't know what those things are!

If you have good luck with potted geraniums, please tell me what you do to them with regard to light exposure (full sun, only morning sun?), fertilizing (what kind and how often) and watering frequency. I am starting to think that they KNOW I am desperate for them to grow and are dying just to aggravate me!

Thanks for any advice or tips you can offer!

Foliar feeding with seaweed emulsion keeps mine blooming all year.

When I started watering with aerated compost tea they went nuts for awhile. I had to constantly pinch and deadhead.

One thing my neighbor taught me was to add a 2" layer of perlite to the bottom of the container, and to mix plenty more in to the potting soil, for drainage as well as a little moisture retention. We get giant 4cu' bags for $10 at a hardware/supply store.

-nita

Cocoabee,
I buy liquid kelp to foliar feed my other plants - do you suppose it would work as well as the seaweed (or is kelp the same thing?) Thanks for the perlite idea - I'll try that this year.

Buffy,

You already kinda found the answer to one of your questions re the watering. :_| Geraniums like to dry out before watering. They also prefer to be a bit potbound. Deadhead religiously, and pinch off any yellowing leaves.

Also to avoid leaves from getting blighted or mildewed, remove any fallen petals from the leaves. Ever noticed how they can actually "stick" to the leaves, and you have to kinda peel them off. If you leave them on those leaves, they sort of 'eat through' the leaf.

Oh, and hope cocoabeee doesn't mind, but...yes...liquid kelp IS liquid seaweed.

gardenz

Sorry for this...but my best luck with Geraniums is to put them in the ground. They went nuts.

the main thing with geraniums is to keep them fertilized and they will thank you for it with tons of flowers. I have mine on the east side of the house setting on the concrete driveway. They get sun most of the day, and lots of heat from the driveway.

Nice black barnyard bottom-of-the-pile manure keeps mine in full bloom. Also lots of full sun. The ones in partial sun get "leggy" and don't bloom nearly as well. If I get lazy when I'm putting them out and don't give them their annual shot of manure, they let me know with poor blooms!

omemee