Geranium Blog

Phoney-Baloney

In my continuing search for scented pelargoniums in Las Vegas nurseries, I called Plant World again. This time I was assured that they really did have scented geraniums in stock. I grabbed my purse and camera and raced out the door!

At the nursery I was shown a group of Geranium sanguineum varieties. I carried one up to the counter and explained that this was commonly called a "true geranium", but a scented geranium is a Pelargonium like zonals or regals.

"It says scented geranium right here," said the gals behind the counter. Sure enough, there was a sticker on the pot that said "Zonal geranium - scented geranium". And another sticker on the pot said "Geranium sanguineum". As if it could be all three things at once!

So that explains why they thought they had scented geraniums. I suspect the scented geranium stickers were added so the wholesaler could unload some weedy-looking, less desirable plants. (Sorry, but that pretty much describes what I saw.) Mislabeling is a time-honored marketing practice in the retail/wholesale plant biz.