You know how, when you’re learning a foreign language, there’s a list of words and expressions that you start with first. You learn to say “hello” and “thank you” and “have a nice day” and perhaps “where is the restroom, please?” This list alone would get you through most of your foreign vacation, coupled perhaps with a bit of universal sign language.
I was thinking of whether there is such a list for gardening. Like, if you’re an absolute beginner gardener, is there a list of plants that are so failsafe, that you wouldn’t need to learn about or plant anything else? (You could, of course, but you wouldn’t have to.)
And if there is, what perennial would sit at number one?
I went back and forth between black-eyed Susans, hollyhocks and a few other cottage garden staples, until it finally dawned on me that the most beginner-friendly, fail-safe perennial I would recommend is the hardy geranium (also knows as cranesbill geraniums).
Here are a few reasons why:
- It is truly hardy! It will survive harsh winters and hot summers.
- There’s a hardy geranium for any light situation, from shade to full sun.
- You do not need to bother fertilizing them. In fact, it’s probably better that you don’t.
And as to keeping them lush and blooming? Couldn’t be easier! Here are a few tips that I learned while growing hardy geraniums that will benefit both newbie gardeners and experienced ones.
Oh, and if you don’t know whether you’re growing annual geraniums or hardy ones, here’s how to tell the difference.
1. Hardy geraniums bloom well in part sun.
Hardy geraniums will bloom profusely when we plant them in full sun. But there is a caveat. We have to give them a bit more water if we want them to survive scorching heat. And the thicker the leaves, the better it will survive full sun.
Part sun, however, is a different game altogether. All hardy geraniums will do well in part sun or part shade, which means getting between four and six hours of direct sunlight. This can come either in the form of morning sun and afternoon shade OR morning shade followed by afternoon sun.
If you want to plant a hardy geranium in the shade, it will also do well. But it won’t bloom as much.
Luckily with geraniums there’s a way around this. If you plant a cultivar that has gorgeous leaves, you’ll simply forget about ever craving flowers.
A tip that I learned from a podcast interview with a commercial grower of geraniums was to choose cultivars that have a lighter variegation in their foliage. The light colors help the leaves attract and absorb more light, so these geraniums will tend to do better in the shade.
2. If you cut hardy geraniums back, they will bloom again.
Have you heard of the prune in June gang?
It’s a group of flowers that, if you trim them back once the blooms are on their way out, you will get more flowers in the fall. Hardy geraniums are part of the gang, together with alchemilla, brunnera, pulmonaria, euphorbia and centaurea.
We cut back the hardy geraniums right after they’ve flowered, before the plant wastes too much energy on producing seeds.
Here’s how to do it:
Simply gather a handful of leaves and flower shoots and trim them back to the crown. Then keep the plant watered over the next few weeks. You’ll notice that it starts to grow new leaves and, eventually, new flowers. These new blooms will stay open right through the fall.
Wait, do I cut the entire plant down or just the dead flowers?
Yes, I was confused too the first time I did it. My advice is that, if you have a young hardy geranium, don’t cut it all the way down the first couple of years. Just trim off the spent flowers down to the base, but keep the leaves. The roots of the plant may not be established enough to take the shock. It won’t die, but it won’t bloom again this year.
However, if your geraniums are mature and sturdy, you can cut them back to the ground at the end of June, after they’ve flowered. The advantage of this is that, often, larger-leaf geraniums will have already split in the middle and smothered other plants in their surroundings. So by cutting them down now, you’re giving the other plants a bit of breathing room.
DO NOT (I repeat, do not!) cut into the rhizome of the geranium, if you’re growing a rhizomatous geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum). You need it to serve as a starting point for the next set of leaves.
Full disclaimer that, if you garden in a colder zone where it takes a bit longer for geraniums to bloom, you may need to wait until July to cut them back.
For a few more ideas of plants that you can prune in the summer, often to jumpstart a second bloom, have a look at this article I wrote.
3. You don’t have to fertilize hardy geraniums.
Here’s the thing: because geraniums are so leaf-heavy (with the flowers being the secondary attraction), we might have the tendency to think that if we feed the plant more, we’ll get more blooms.
So we pour our heart (and our fertilizer) on these poor perennials and expect them to perform blooming miracles. Well, that’s just a path to disappointment. The more we fertilize hardy geraniums, the more lush leaves they’ll get (excellent!), but at the detriment of flowers.
The only way I feed my geraniums is by adding a layer of homemade compost at the beginning of the growing season, generally in mid-spring. I usually add another layer about a week after I cut them back in mid-summer.
4. Keep young geraniums mulched for more blooms.
One thing I love about geraniums is that, once they’re established, they basically act as their own mulch. The leaf coverage shades the crown and the roots from too much temperature fluctuations and prevents the soil around from drying out.
However, we need to keep young geraniums properly mulched. They are thirsty plants, especially as they’re growing their root system. And with so much foliage mass, there could be a significant moisture loss in the sun.
This is where that layer of compost that I was mentioning above will come in handy. If you don’t have compost, shredded bark mulch is the next best choice.
5. Divide hardy geraniums every few years.
Hardy geraniums are on my list of plants that are really good value for money. I get what I paid for, then I get it again without paying anything every few years.
All I have to do is get my hands a bit dirty.
Generally, I’ve noticed that hardy geraniums do better when I remember to divide them. If I let them grow for too long, they’ll just get a bit overcrowded and not flower as well.
The timing of that may vary, depending on the type and cultivar you’re growing, the amount of light and water it’s getting and the growth pattern. But assume that one division every three to five years will rejuvenate the geraniums better than letting them get overgrown.
With most large geraniums, the plant itself will let me know when it’s time to dig it out. Once I notice that the center of the plant is drying or dying out, I know it’s the right time to divide.
I’ve had good results with dividing geraniums any time between early spring and mid-summer. That will give the plant enough time to establish new roots before the frost comes. But I generally skip the “chopping down in June part” if I plan on dividing it that year.
I simply dig out the entire root clump, then I separate it into a few pieces. The trick is to make sure each division has a healthy chunk of root section attached. I then relocate about two thirds of what I dug out and replant them somewhere else, making sure they always go in the ground at their original depth.
This year, I’m also replanting some smaller sections in separate pots to pass them on to friends.
Remember to keep every new plant well watered to help them bounce back and help the roots to take to their new environment.