One of the easiest ways to add colour to pots, window boxes and flowerbeds is to plant pelargoniums. They’re incredibly simple to grow and can flower all the way from May to October. 

You may be looking at this plant and thinking we’ve mis-named a geranium. The names geranium and pelargonium are often used for the same plants. They are slightly different, but the confusion all stems from when pelargoniums were first brought from South Africa to the UK in the 1700s. It was thought they were new types of geranium and by time everyone realised they were wrong, things had got out of hand and the name had stuck. It doesn’t really matter, though. They need exactly the same care.

They love somewhere really sunny. The more sun and heat they get the more they’ll flower. Keep them regularly watered and fed and they’ll be happy as anything. 

Pelargoniums don’t do well in cold winters and are generally only grown for one season, then replaced the next year. However, if you have somewhere warm and bright for them to live inside over winter, they may well live to bloom for more than one summer. 

Did you know?

Pelargonium has been used in medicine to treat everything from intestinal problems to colds to throat infections.