How to care for pelargonium and distinguish it from geranium

In nature, the flower grows in India and South Africa. In floriculture it is appreciated for magnificent and bright blossoming. The leaves secrete volatile, clean the apartment from pathogenic bacteria. Pelargonium is believed to bring peace and harmony to the home.

Confusion in colors

Very often, even flower growers with experience confuse pelargonium and geranium. What is the difference between pelargonium and geranium? Pelargonium belongs to a large family of geraniums. These two plants are close relatives, but there are still differences between them.

The geranium family includes winter-hardy and heat-loving plants. They are united by a fetal shape resembling a bird's beak. According to the classification results, winter-hardy species were attributed to geraniums, heat-loving species - to pelargoniums. Even on this basis, it becomes clear that they need different care.

The size of the petals on one flower in the pelargonium varies. The bottom three are small, the top two are larger. Pelargoniums do not withstand frost, in temperate latitudes they are grown exclusively as a room pot culture. Wild species are very different. There are even succulent plants among them. Almost all varieties grown in pots are hybrids.

Main varieties

All types of flower are ornamental plants with very beautiful and long flowering. The difficulty level of cultivation is medium. They are considered unpretentious, rarely die.

• Fragrant. Highly branched shrub. Stems and leaves slightly pubescent. Theoretically, in good conditions, it can grow up to a meter. In practice, it forms a lower bush. Leaves are divided into several parts, the usual green color. Typically lush flowering with multiple pink flowers. Leaves exude a pleasant smell.
• Capitate. Shrubs half a meter high. Leaves with a fluff, upright shoots. It blooms with pinkish and violet flowers, collected in dense umbrella-shaped inflorescences. The smell of leaves is specific.
• Fragrant. Shrub with short shoots. Rounded leaflets have torn edges. The leaves smell good. Inflorescences are umbellate, of eight to ten flowers.
• Zonal. Pretty tall variety. Widely distributed in room culture. The leaves are whole, green. A brown border runs along the edge of the leaves. Inflorescences are multiflowered, flowering is long.
• Potato. Shrub with heavily pubescent stems and leaves. The leaves are green, attached to the stem with long stalks. Numerous reddish-violet flowers are gathered in dense umbrella-shaped inflorescences. There are terry varieties.
• Large flowered. Forms a lush bush with high branched shoots. The leaves are lobed or dissected. More often slightly pubescent, sometimes smooth, without pubescence. On one peduncle up to three large flowers. The color is white with reddish veins.
• Curly. Shrub up to half a meter high.A two-row arrangement of heart-shaped leaves with torn, wavy edges is characteristic. Peduncles are not high. Each carries two or three flowers.
• Getting dirty. Tall shrub. In nature, grows up to one and a half meters. The shoots are fleshy, leaves are bud-shaped, rounded. Red flowers on short pedicels are collected in umbrella-shaped inflorescences. Depending on the conditions of detention, it can bloom at any time of the year.
• Fluffy. An interesting succulent variety. Shoots are thick, creeping. The division of leaves into cirrus lobes is characteristic. The color of the leaves is bluish. The flowers are white, red dots on the throat.
• Angular. Shrub to a meter. The leaves are shaped like oak foliage with slightly wavy lobes. Flowers are bright red, numerous.
• Thyroid. Beautiful ampelous variety with smooth or pubescent shoots. Leaflets are thyroid, fleshy, with pubescence or without it. The division of leaves into five shares is characteristic. The edges of the leaves are even, smooth. Blossoms in white, red or pink flowers.

Pelargonium care: what to consider

How to care for pelargonium in a pot? This is a fairly simple plant to grow - it does not require daily attention, it is easily put up with short-term worsening conditions. With a gross violation of the rules of maintenance, pelargonium does not bloom or blooms very poorly. The following recommendations are recommended.

• Lighting. He loves the light, is not afraid of the sun. One of the few indoor plants that can be left on the south window without shading. An important requirement is a long daylight hours. A short day leads to elongation of shoots, sparse flowering. The lack of sun can be compensated by fluorescent lamps. If possible, take out to the garden or to the balcony in summer. In extreme cases, the room is ventilated daily.
• Temperature. In summer, it grows well at ordinary room temperature up to 30 ° C. Caring for pelargonium in winter requires lowering the temperature to 14 ° C. A cool wintering is necessary for full flowering.
• Watering. Watering is not recommended too often. After drying of the top soil layer, they wait three days before the next watering. In winter, watering is minimized, but they do not allow the earthen to dry out completely. Increased soil moisture at lower temperatures in winter often leads to decay of the root system.
• Air humidity. Neutral to dry air. Spraying is necessary only on the hottest days. Rarely sprayed, only with a spray gun with the finest possible spray. Drops of water can leave ugly spots on pubescent leaves.
• Top dressing. Pelargonium is not very demanding on top dressing. To improve flowering, you can feed no more than twice a month with a mineral complex with a high content of phosphorus. They don’t introduce organic matter - pelargonium assimilates it poorly.
• The soil. The composition of the soil should include sheet land, turf, humus, sand and peat. All are taken in equal amounts. Too nutritious soil with a high content of organic substances is not needed. The main requirements are friability and breathability.
• Transfer. If the roots are completely covered with an earthen lump, you need to transplant pelargonium. Young plants are transplanted annually, adults - as the root system grows.

Propagation Features

Pelargonium bushes are propagated mainly vegetatively. Pelargonium can be propagated by seeds, but new plants will differ from the mother bush. Therefore, sowing should be considered as a way to grow new plants from store seeds.

Seeds

Description. Growing pelargonium at home from high-quality seed material is not difficult. Seeds germinate quickly, seedlings develop well. A year later, full blooming bushes grow from them.

Procedure

1. Low but wide containers are filled with any universal soil, slightly moisten it from the spray gun.
2. Seeds are sown to a depth of 1 cm, at a distance of 5 cm from each other. Before planting, the seeds can be soaked briefly in a solution of growth stimulant.
3. The container is covered with a film, put in a well-lit, warm place. The optimum temperature for germination is 20-25 ° C.
4. At the stage of two or three leaves, seedlings need to be planted. When the height of the seedlings reaches approximately 10 cm, another transplant is carried out in pots of a slightly larger size.

Cuttings

Description. It is even easier to root pelargonium by cuttings. The best time for grafting is early spring. After about a week and a half, the first roots appear. Three weeks later, the young plant is ready for transplantation into an individual pot.

Procedure

1. Cuttings are cut 5-7 cm long. Take cuttings with 2-3 internodes.
2. The slice is dipped in coal powder. Cuttings are set in light sandy soil at a slight angle.
3. Top make shelter from a cropped plastic bottle or cover with a glass jar.
4. Keep at a moderate temperature not higher than 23 ° C. The soil is periodically moistened, excess condensate is removed from the walls of the shelter.

Dividing the bush

Description. Adult, overgrown bushes can be divided. Division is often carried out simultaneously with pruning. For example, when an elongated, lost decorative plant needs to be reanimated. When dividing a bush, a number of rules are followed:

Procedure

1. Before dividing, pelargonium is well watered, they wait an hour and are removed from the pot together with a lump of earth.
2. The root system is carefully cleaned of the ground, rotten, dried roots are immediately cut off. The bush is cut with a sharp knife into several parts. Each dividend should have several growth points.
3. Long branches are cut to a height of not more than 10 cm.
4. Delenki planted in separate pots, well watered.

A week later, the first moderate top dressing with a nitrogen content is carried out. Pelargonium will bloom in three to four months.

Disease

Diseases for pelargonium are not uncommon. Even in favorable conditions, it is impossible to exclude the likelihood of a flower becoming infected through infected soil or from other plants. The diseases most often encountered are summarized in a table.

Table - Pelargonium Diseases

Pests

Pests can even attack a healthy plant when conditions change. Provoking factors - the direct proximity of infected plants, dry air, increased soil moisture. Information on the most common pests and their control measures is given in the table.

Table - Pelargonium Pests

Before caring for pelargonium, make sure that you are dealing with pelargonium, and not with geranium. There are differences in the care of these two plants. Otherwise, pelargonium will not cause you much trouble - it is an easy-to-grow, non-whimsical plant.