Fixing Leggy Geraniums: The Trick to Keep Them Lush and Full

If your geraniums are starting to get a bit scraggly and are struggling to thrive this summer, try this quick trick to revive them and keep them looking lush and full for the rest of the season.

It’s common for geraniums to start looking a little thin, leggy, and weak near the middle of summer and into the later summer weeks. You may even find that your plants aren’t growing as large and full as you had hoped, and maybe your blooms aren’t quite as abundant as the ones you see on other porches in your neighborhood. If you’re wondering what you’re doing wrong, this easy little trick should help to turn things around for you and your geraniums in no time. Geraniums can be rewarding, drought-tolerant plants to grow with cheerful flowers and deep green foliage, but they do require a bit of care throughout the season to keep them looking their best. Try this trick today and your porch planters will thank you.

Types of Geraniums

Geraniums are fast-growing flowering plants, prized for their beautiful ornamental properties. Hardy geraniums are herbaceous perennial plants that come back every year. They grow well in perennial borders and cottage-style gardens.

Today, we’ll be talking about annual geranium varieties. The type you see often used as bedding plants, in pots, or for window boxes. These plants are typically used only for one season (although they can be overwintered successfully in some cases) and are loved for their bold blooms in red, fuchsia, or pink. There are also geraniums with showy white flowers like the ones you can see that I have growing on my deck this year.

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The Baking Soda Trick for Geraniums

Many blooming plants get a boost from a little bit of baking soda in their water every once in a while, but geraniums react remarkably quickly to this easy-to-apply solution.

To prepare your baking soda watering solution, simply add a tablespoon of baking soda to two quarts of water in a watering can, and use it to water your geraniums as you normally would, about once a week or so throughout the growing season, or when you feel like your geraniums could use a little boost.

You’ll soon see fresh new growth popping up, and you’ll probably start to notice the number of blooms on your plants increasing quite significantly as well. There are quite a few blooming plants that enjoy growing in soil that is slightly basic, so if your soil is a bit acidic, the sodium bicarbonate solution helps with that immediately.

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What to Do About Leggy Geraniums

If you have geraniums that have grown leggy or stretched out, there are a few steps you can take to fix them and make them look fuller before you begin with your baking soda watering regimen.

You may already be deadheading spent blooms as they turn brown, dry, and crispy, but that may not be enough to get your geranium plants back on the right track.

The first thing you should do when you see your geraniums getting leggy is to give them a good pruning. Don’t just deadhead spent blooms, but also prune back the stems and main stalks of the plants, removing dying foliage, and giving the plant a good reset.

If your plants have grown very leggy, you’ll want to prune them back almost completely, leaving about 6 inches of the main stalk or stem. Inspect the stem for buds showing new growth and prune above that point on the stem. You’ll also want to leave any new baby leaves, but remove large, single leaves growing alone on long stems.

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Keeping Geraniums Full Throughout the Growing Season

To maintain fullness and plant health, focus on pruning your geraniums on a twice-weekly basis throughout the growing season. Inspect the plant and prune back any bloom stems completely that have faded petals or seem to be on their way out. Below is an example of a bloom that should be removed, with the petals starting to brown.

Leave only any unopened flower buds or bloom clusters that are just beginning to open. Within a day or two, you will be rewarded with plants full of fresh, new blooms, and an abundance of buds appearing over and over again throughout the summer and into the fall.

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More Essential Geranium Care Knowledge

Geraniums are sun-loving plants and need at least six hours of bright sunlight a day. While you may like to move some of your other planters to the shade during the hottest days, your geraniums can tolerate the heat and should be left out to soak up the sun’s rays, even during a heat wave.

Avoid overwatering your geraniums as much as possible and make sure the pot they’re in is well-drained. The ideal watering schedule for geraniums is probably only about 1/3 as often as you water other container plants. If you water your porch planters every day, water your geraniums only every third day.

If the soil in your geranium planters or garden bed feels warm and dry, your geraniums are ready for more hydration.

My other favorite tip is a bit of a cheat, but a classic container planting method. Try under-planting your geraniums with creeping or trailing ground-cover plants to cover the soil in your planter and give the illusion of full foliage while you wait for your geraniums to fill in. This year, I’ve used a variegated ivy called “Glacier” that has worked so beautifully, but something like creeping Jenny, or vinca, works beautifully as well.

Follow these tips and you’ll have beautiful geraniums to enjoy all summer long.