The pelargoniums, commonly known as “geraniums”, originally come from southern Africa, where they grow wild as shrubs or sub-shrubs in desert areas. From their natural location you can also determine the optimal conditions for cultivating the popular flowers on your balcony at home. Is your geranium not blooming? Then there is often an incorrect location or care errors behind it.
Why aren't my geraniums blooming?
If geraniums do not bloom, the causes are often the wrong location (too shady), excessive moisture, incorrect fertilization or pests such as aphids and thrips. To promote flower production, geraniums should receive sufficient sunlight, proper watering and appropriate fertilizer.
Is the location correct?
Geraniums, for example, often don't bloom or only bloom a little because they are in too much shade. The plants need full sun - the more the better. If you can rule out other reasons, an unsuitable location is often to blame for the missing flowers. By the way, suitable protection from constant rain is also part of the right planting location - in persistently rainy weather, leaves and flowers suffer and ultimately look unsightly.
Don’t water geraniums too often
In general, too much moisture is fatal for geraniums. The plants should be slightly moist, but definitely not wet - desert plants tolerate waterlogging poorly. Water your geraniums regularly, but only directly onto the soil. If possible, leaves and flowers should not be wetted. Allow the substrate to dry thoroughly in between (finger test!) and only then water again - geraniums tolerate short dry periods very well. When there is too much moisture or even waterlogging, geraniums often cause the buds to dry out and fall off.
Moisture causes many diseases
Excessive moisture, whether caused by frequent watering or rain, quickly leads to various diseases induced by fungi or bacteria 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, if necessary, separate the plant.
Don’t forget to fertilize – do it right
Another common cause of geraniums not blooming is incorrect fertilization. Geraniums are heavy feeders and must therefore be regularly supplied with a special fertilizer for flowering plants. You don't necessarily have to use expensive geranium fertilizer; cheaper flowering plant fertilizer or correctly dosed blue grain also serve this purpose. It is only important that the fertilizer is not too high in nitrogen, as this only stimulates leaf growth. However, flowering plants primarily need phosphorus, potassium and magnesium.
Tip
If you cannot pinpoint specific causes for the lack of flowering, check the geraniums again very closely for pests such as aphids or thrips. These leaf sap suckers rob the plant of energy, which it can no longer invest in flowering.
