Geraniums are absolutely magical plants. However, most people make a fatal mistake when cutting them, because of which they completely destroy their nutmeg boxes. See what you should avoid when cutting them.
Geraniums are popular ornamental plants. They can be grown both in the garden and, for example, in a box on the balcony. In addition, many people appreciate them for their unpretentiousness. Nutmegs don’t need much. All they need is plenty of sun, a permeable substrate and moderate watering. However, now is the time when geraniums can get into serious trouble, with their annual pruning after winter. What mistakes should be avoided? Experienced gardener Klára Černá from Prague shared this for iReceptář.
You can find a YouTube video about overwintering geraniums on the ROK GARDENER channel:
How to prune geraniums in January
“Muscats are relatively undemanding and can withstand a lot, the only critical thing with them is the cut.” says Andrea. “A big mistake, which is quite common, is cutting geraniums right at the beginning of January. In January, geraniums should still be resting with the fact that the cut was made in the fall before the first frosts hit. Of course it happens that someone forgets about this cut, the problem is when they try to catch up in January.” stated Klára for iReceptář.
“If you forgot about the autumn cut before, nothing groundbreaking will happen. It is ideal to remove parts of the geraniums that were damaged by frost, but otherwise definitely wait for a larger cutwhich is carried out in the spring. The plant will be rested and it will already be warmer outside, which means that new buds and flowers will have ideal conditions to grow nicely and geraniums generally recover better after winter, when it will be warmer outside, and above all the sun will be shining.” says Klara.
“In January, so to speak, do not engage in any major events with geraniums. Remove only damaged and frozen partsor shorten the geranium by some 10 centimeters in case your shoots have stretched out a lot. Otherwise really wait until spring to cutbecause otherwise it could also happen that in May you will have chests that should have been full of blooming geraniums, empty.” said Klára.
Spring cut
So what should the big spring cut look like? “Spring pruning of geraniums is absolutely key. It is done at the end of February and March. The plant will need to be sharply cut back to about a third. Any dry parts, woody and weak shoots must be removed. You don’t have to worry about cutting the geraniums really deep here, as they will then go in, which will encourage lush and rapid flowering.” stated Klára for iReceptář.
