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Colorful Companions For Geraniums In Your Garden
By RITA KUEBER
Planting geraniums, either in your backyard or in a few pots on your porch, is an easy way to add color and fragrance to your home. Grow petunias next to them for maximum impact.
Petunias come in many shades and sizes, some with ruffles, dramatic borders, dots, stripes, or two-tones. These flowers bloom in hues of pink, purple, yellow, and white.
Grandiflora have the largest blooms — 3 to 4 inches across — while milliflora are mini-petunias with blooms only 1 inch wide. Multiflora have many, somewhat smaller blooms.
These trumpet-shaped flowers will bloom alongside your geraniums from spring until the first frost. All varieties need five to six hours of full sun to create the most blooms.
Both plants need routine watering in order to grow their blooms. New plantings should be watered daily during the first week and then as needed to keep the soil damp.
Potted plants need great drainage and should be watered every few days since they will dry out faster. Petunias and geraniums in hanging baskets need more water than potted ones.
Ensure your petunias maintain a fresh look throughout the growing season by taking the time to deadhead the spent blossoms, removing the entire stem and not just the petals.