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.

Seed Patrol

A few warm days and like magic, the seeds appear! This afternoon I harvested seeds from Pelargonium 'Cinnamon', P. ionidiflorum (Celery), Coconut, Apple and a couple of zonals.

Seed Report

Pelargonium x fragrans (Nutmeg) with flowers and seedheads

As you can see, Nutmeg Geranium is covered with flowers and seed heads. The same goes for P. odoratissimum (Apple). P. grossularioides (Coconut) - always a vigorous seed producer - is just getting started.

There are two small-scale seed producers so far this year: P. 'Strawberry' has three cranesbills forming. Also, P. x fragrans 'Snowy Nutmeg' has produced a few seedheads. Will the seedlings be variegated like the parent?

And then, a zonal geranium called 'Patriot Salmon Chic' has nine seedheads so far, but who knows if they will reproduce true. And besides that, the tag says "Do not propagate".

Coconut Geranium Seedlings

What do you look for if you're trying to grow Coconut geraniums from seed? It takes 10 to 14 days for the seeds to germinate. The lower seedling in the picture is how they look when they first come up: approximately 1/3 of an inch from leaftip to leaftip. The next leaves will be round and scalloped.

I read something interesting the other day. It turns out that growing from seed is the preferred method of propagating P. elongatum (Upright Coconut), P. odoratissimum (Apple) and P. grossularioides (Coconut). All three of these varieties are pretty easy to collect seeds from, but not so easy to take a cutting. So here comes my next experiment...

Starting Coconut Geranium From Seed

The seeds of Pelargonium grossularioides are tiny. The easiest way to grow them is to sprinkle them on the surface of your pre-moistened growing medium. Mist the surface to bring the seeds into full contact with the soil. Place your seed tray (or pot or margarine bowl) into the magical high-tech greenhouse known as a ziploc bag. No more watering while you wait for your seeds to "hatch".

Coconut geranium seeds are the small dark dots.

Before planting, I soaked my seed tray in water
until the Jiffy Mix was totally wetted.

After sprinkling the seeds, I sprayed the surface with water to make
sure the seeds are in good contact with the surface.

A ziploc bag makes an effective and inexpensive greenhouse.

Seed Starting for Pelargoniums

Pelargonium grossularioides seeds (L) and P. elongatum seeds (R)

I ran across an interesting article - Raising Pelargoniums from Seed by the Sprouting method. It reminded me of Jeanne's seed starting method that she describes in her blog Uncle Tom's Garden.

I have seeds aplenty of Pelargonium grossularioides (Coconut) and they start easily. You could almost call them invasive! But I was nervous about how to grow the P. elongatum (Upright Coconut) seeds because I have far fewer for experimentation. So the damp paper towel method it will be!

A Surprise Find

Seedlings of Pelargonium grossularioides

Isn't it great when your plants give you presents? I found these seedlings of Coconut Geranium beside the pool. There were four for sure and another possible, but too tiny to tell for sure. They can be moved to a pot easily at this stage. When they get bigger they seem to resent being moved.

Coconut Geranium Seeds

Seeds spring forth from Coconut Geranium seedheads

Pelargonium grossularioides is one of the scented geraniums that can be grown from seed and still remain true. And what a seed producer it is! The seeds are easy to collect. I just snip off the seedhead clusters after they pop open and drop them in a pie pan to let them dry further. After several days shake the seeds into a clean dry container for storage. And keep them away from any breezes. They have little fuzzy parachutes (apparently invisible to the scanner) that easily carry them hither and yon.

Coconut Geranium Seedhead Update

Coconut Geranium covered with seedheads

Pelargonium grossularioides (Coconut) looks downright prickly with all these seedheads. I started collecting the seeds today. When the seedhead dries out, it pops open and the seeds are hanging there with little fuzzy parachutes to be carried away by the wind. To collect, I just cut off the whole seedhead cluster after they have opened and drop it into a bowl to dry further.

Signs of Fertility

Seedheads of Pelargonium grossularioides (Coconut scented)

I am completely familiar with Coconut Geranium's (P. grossularioides) willingness to engage in "seedy" behavior - Oh, Ha ha ha - but was surprised to find seedheads on Upright Coconut as well. One funny detail I noticed is that the seedheads of Upright Coconut are all pointing down, but the seedheads of regular Coconut Geranium are all pointing up. More photos as the situation develops.

Seedheads of Pelargonium 'Upright Coconut'

Covered With Flowers

Pelargonium grossularioides

Coconut geranium is covered with flowers - extremely tiny flowers. They are about 1/8" across but fortunately they are in little clusters so they can be seen. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they are hot pink!

Detail of Coconut geranium flowers and buds

Nursery Report

Fuzzy babies of Pelargonium 'Chocolate Mint' celebrate
spring with new growth and even some buds.

It has been 2 months since I started rooting some cuttings from my scented geranium plants. I started out with 12 starts each of Lime, Citrosa, Chocolate Mint, Dr. Livingstone, Brilliant, Ginger, and Nutmeg. I also had 4 volunteer seedlings of Coconut and took 8 cuttings from a Coconut runner.

So how are they doing?

Mostly - very well! I still have 12 babies each of Lime, Citrosa, Chocolate Mint, Dr. Livingstone, and Ginger. Also 11 Brilliant, 6 Coconut, and 3 Nutmeg.

Of the Coconut, the four seedlings are healthy and strong, but the cuttings from the runner never really seemed to get going. Only 2 remain. Nutmeg also was difficult. These cuttings took cold spells harder than the others. I expect that when I try to root some new cuttings in warmer temperatures, they will do fine.

Coconut Explosion

The Coconut geranium mothership has been growing like crazy. It is now sending out runners that carry the blooms along with some leaves. The flowers are very bright pink with five narrow petals and are super-tiny!

Covered with Flowers

Pelargonium grossularioides

Coconut geranium is covered with flowers - extremely tiny flowers. They are about 1/8" across but fortunately they are in little clusters so they can be seen. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they are hot pink!

Detail of Coconut geranium flowers and buds

Rooting Plantlets from a Runner

A Coconut geranium runner

I have been wondering if the plantlets growing along Coconut geranium runners could be rooted. Today I cut apart a runner and gave it a try. I stuck part of the runner stem in the ground, and made sure that the axiol where the leaves are coming out is in contact with the soil.

Coconut geranium plantlets now on their own

Coconut Geranium Volunteers

Coconut geranium seedling 2/14/06

Yesterday I transplanted 4 tiny seedlings of Pelargonium grossularioides (Coconut geranium) into their own little 4" pots. Each is still looking perky 24 hours after being moved. That is in spite of an environmental challenge: cold, dry winds out of the northwest, with gusts up to 43 mph.

Two days ago I transplanted an older seedling from its original spot in with the Nutmeg geranium to its own seperate pot. It reacted badly to the move. Its larger, outer leaves all wilted and will be cast off. The center, young leaves are strong and healthy, and I'm sure it will survive.