The best time to prune your geraniums is in late winter or early spring, before new growth begins. Learn how to properly prune your geraniums for more flowers.
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Why Pruning Geraniums is Important
Pruning geraniums is important because it removes spent blooms, improves air circulation, and helps shape the plant. It is best to prune in the spring or early summer.
Pruning increases air circulation
Pruning helps to increase air circulation around the plant which reduces the chances of fungal diseases developing. It also helps the plant to produce stronger and healthier growth. Deadheading (removing spent flowers) also encourages the plant to produce more flowers as it prevents the plant from wasting energy on seed production.
Pruning helps the plant focus its energy on producing flowers
Pruning helps the plant focus its energy on producing flowers instead of leaves. It also keeps the plant from getting too leggy and allows you to shape it the way you want. Geraniums produce the most flowers when they are pruned in early spring, just before they begin to actively grow.
Pruning can make the plant look neater
Pruning can make the plant look neater, but more importantly it will encourage new growth and more flowers. The best time to prune geraniums is in late winter or early spring before new growth begins.
When to Prune Geraniums
Geraniums are a beautiful, low-maintenance addition to any garden. But to keep them looking their best, they need a little bit of care. One important part of taking care of geraniums is knowing when to prune them. Pruning helps encourage new growth and can even make your geraniums bloom more.
Prune in late winter or early spring
To keep your geraniums blooming throughout the season, you will need to prune them regularly. Pruning encourages the plant to produce more flowers, and it also helps to keep the plant tidy and compact.
The best time to prune geraniums is in late winter or early spring, before new growth begins. You can also prune in mid-summer if necessary to remove any dead or diseased growth, or to shape the plant.
To prune, simply cut back the stems by a few inches using sharp gardening shears. Be sure to make your cuts at an angle so that water will not sit on the cuts and cause them to rot. You can also remove any spent flowers by pinching them off at the base of the stem.
Prune after the plant has finished blooming
Wait until after the plant has finished blooming to prune geraniums. This will ensure that the plant has time to produce flowers for the next blooming season. Use sharp pruning shears to make clean cuts. Cut back the plant by one-third to one-half its total height.
How to Prune Geraniums
Geraniums are a beautiful, easy-to-care-for addition to any garden. Though they are fairly low-maintenance, they do require a little pruning to encourage more blooming. Read on to learn how to prune your geraniums for more flowers.
Cut off any dead or dying leaves or stems
Cut off any dead or dying leaves or stems, as well as any that are brown or black. These won’t produce flowers, and may even harm your plant.
If your plant is looking a bit leggy (as many geraniums do after flowering), you can cut it back by up to half its height to encourage new growth. This will also help to produce more flowers.
Cut back the plant by one-third its total height
Pruning geraniums is a vital part of keeping these popular flowering plants healthy and prolific. The type of pruning you do, and when you do it, will vary depending on the growing conditions and the variety of geranium you have. But there are some general guidelines that apply to all types of geraniums.
Geraniums bloom best when they are kept somewhat pot-bound. This means that you should not routinely move them up to larger pots as they grow, but rather keep them in the same pot and carefully prune them back as needed to control their size.
As a rule of thumb, you should cut back the plant by one-third its total height every few months, or as needed to keep it within bounds. This pruning will encourage the plant to produce lots of new shoots, which in turn will produce more flowers.
If your geranium becomes too leggy or straggly, you can give it a more drastic pruning, cutting it back almost to the ground. This will force the plant to produce lots of new growth, resulting in a fuller, bushier plant. Just be aware that this type of pruning will also delay blooming for several weeks.
Pinch off any new growth in the center of the plant
Pinching off the new growth in the center of the plant will help it to become fuller and bushier. It’s best to do this when the plant is young, before it gets too leggy. You can continue to pinch off new growth throughout the season as needed.