Geranium Blog

Heat Tolerant Scented Geraniums For Desert Dwelling Gardeners

Desert dwelling gardeners face a daunting array of problems. Triple digit temperatures, high winds, low humidity all create difficult challenges. Zonal geraniums have a rough time in the Las Vegas summer. What about the scenteds? Good news: Many scented geraniums live happily with our weather extremes.

I thought a list of the most heat tolerant and trouble free would be useful. Everything on this list I have grown for over a year in Southern Nevada. They perform well with only the basic care - no special treatment. (Basic care is defined as water, fertilizer, repotting as needed and half day of sun.) This list is not meant to be definitive and will most certainly grow longer in the future.

Heat Tolerant Scented Geraniums For Desert Gardeners:

• Pelargonium 'Attar of Roses' (rose)
• P. crispum (lemon)
• P. crispum 'Minor' (lemon)
• P. 'Dr. Livingstone' (lemon-rose)
• P. grossularioides (coconut)
• P. limoneum (lemon-lime)
• P. lucaeflora (rose)
• P. ionidiflorum (celery)
• P. 'Mint Scented Rose' (mint)
• P. odoratissimum (apple)
• P. 'Old Scarlet Unique' (pungent)
• P. 'Orange' (orange)
• P. 'Roller's Satinique' (pungent)
• P. 'Sandalwood' (woodsy)
• P. 'Strawberry' (strawberry)

Which worthy, hardworking young scented geraniums will make it to the Heat Tolerant List next? What pitfalls await them? Which scented geraniums have been "deselected" from the List? And why, why, why? You'll read it all here first.

Lemon Scented Geranium Roundup

The lemon scented geraniums generally have nice white flowers with some purple veining. Often the three lower petals are long and narrow, giving the flowers a primitive wildflower look. Spring Park Lemon puts on a showy and long-lasting display.

The leaves of the crispums are all small. This is a common trait of desert plants. All varieties of Pelargonium crispum that I have grown are tolerant of the heat although they appreciate some shade during the midsummer. Certainly they are worthwhile for gardeners in the desert Southwest.

A Look At Growth Habit

Today I'm starting a series of posts on the growth habits of the various scented geraniums. How many times have you looked at a plant and thought, "Is it supposed to do that?" So - we'll start with the lemon scented geraniums.

P. crispum is the plain lemon geranium. It has an upright growth habit, but when a branch gets too long, it starts to lay down and new upright branches grow from the branch that is now horizontal. If the plant were in the ground, that horizontal branch would likely root and thus it would spread. The plant in the picture is now flat like a sail. I'm going to prune off about 2/3 of the long horizontal branch in hopes of encouraging more rounded growth.

New Scented Geraniums - Part 1 of 3

Pelargonium 'Finger Bowl Lemon', P. crispum (lemon scented), P.'Cinnamon' (L to R)

I ordered some new plants from Mountain Valley Growers. I was very pleased with what I received. The plants were in 2 1/2" pots but nice and big. The plants were all labeled with stickers on the pots.

So what did I get? Nine scented geraniums! Here is another view of the geraniums above:

Pelargonium 'Finger Bowl Lemon', P. crispum (lemon scented), P.'Cinnamon' (L to R)

P. 'Finger Bowl Lemon' - Upright plant with very tiny serrated and ruffled leaves. Strong lemon scent.

P. crispum - Upright plant with small serrated and ruffled leaves. Lemon scent.

P. 'Cinnamon' - Upright plant with small wavy serrated leaves. Cinnamon scent.