- Is the location correct?
- Don't water geraniums too often
- Don't forget to fertilize - but do it right!
Commonly known as "geraniums", pelargoniums originally come from southern Africa, where they grow wild in the desert areas as shrubs or subshrubs. From their natural location, you can also read the optimal conditions for cultivating the popular flowers on your balcony at home. Is your geranium not blooming? Then there is often a wrong location or care mistakes behind it.
The absence of flowering can have various causes
Is the location correct?
For example, geraniums often do not bloom or only bloom a little because they are too shady. The plants need full sun - the more the better. So if you can rule out other reasons, an unsuitable location is often to blame for the missing flowers. Incidentally, suitable protection against continuous rain is also part of the right planting site - if the rainy weather persists, leaves and flowers suffer and ultimately look ugly.
Don't water geraniums too often
In general, too much moisture is deadly for geraniums. The plants should be slightly damp, but never wet - desert plants do not tolerate waterlogging very well. Water your geraniums regularly, but only directly into the soil. If possible, leaves and flowers should not be wetted. Allow the substrate to dry well in between (finger test!) and only then water again - geraniums tolerate short dry periods very well. By the way, if the humidity is too high or even waterlogging, geraniums often let the buds dry up and fall off.
Moisture causes many diseases
Too much moisture, whether caused by frequent watering or rain, quickly leads to various fungal or bacterial diseases in geraniums. Pelargonium rust, gray rot or wilt are common - with all infections, the only thing that helps is to cut off affected parts of the plant as quickly as possible and to separate the plant if necessary.
Don't forget to fertilize - but do it right!
Another common cause of geraniums not flowering is improper fertilization. Geraniums are heavy feeders and must therefore be regularly supplied with a special fertilizer for flowering plants. You do not necessarily have to use expensive geranium fertilizer, cheaper flowering plant fertilizer (10.47€) or correctly dosed blue grain also serve this purpose. It is only important that the fertilizer is not too nitrogenous, because this only stimulates leaf growth. However, flowering plants primarily need phosphorus, potash and magnesium.
tips
If you cannot identify any specific reasons for the lack of flowering, check the geraniums again very carefully for pests such as aphids or thrips. These leaf juice suckers rob the plant of energy, which it can then no longer invest in flowering.