Annual eranium

Bold blooms and fancy foliage keep your garden filled with color from planting to frost.

- Sherri Ribbey

Annual geranium Pelargonium hybrids Tender perennial Blooms Red, pink, orange, lavender, salmon or white in late spring to fall Light Full sun to part shade Soil Moist, well-drained Pests None serious Size 5 to 24 in. tall and wide Cold hardy USDA zones 10 to 13 but grown as an annual in most of North America.

When you're browsing the garden center shelves in spring, there's one plant that's hard to miss: annual geranium.

Its colorful blooms are natural attention-getters, and many have striking foliage. I had a hard time narrowing my selections down to this flat of beauties last spring, but once I brought them home, they bloomed like crazy until I took my containers apart after the first frost. I'd love to tell you more about this tried-andtrue plant and introduce you to even more varieties. So if you're looking for a little geranium inspiration and tips for growing robust plants, let's get started!

So much variety In addition to red, pink, orange, lavender or white blooms, many geraniums have great-looking foliage with a zone or ring arching across the center of the leaf. In fact, some, such as 'Vancouver Centennial' and heirlooms 'Mrs Pollock' and 'Wilhelm Langguth', are grown primarily as foliage plants.

Discover Annual Geraniums

Take a stroll through the garden center this spring and you're likely to find these members of the annual geranium family: ivy, zonal and hybrids of the two, interspecifics. As you might expect, ivy geraniums have lobed, ivylike leaves.