What to Do With the Spent Blooms on Geraniums

Geraniums are popular houseplants, in part, due to their long flowering period and the brightness of their colors. Removing dead blooms encourages continued flowering, and the old flower heads can be recycled in several useful ways.

Seeds

• It is possible to grow geraniums from seed collected from the dried blooms. Plant the seeds in trays of seed compost between December and February and keep them warm, at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The new plants will not be identical to the parent like a cutting would be, but they may provide an interesting mix of colors.

Dye

• The flowers of geraniums have been used since ancient times as a source of dye for wool and cloth. The brightest colors come from fresh flowers, but using spent blooms gives more subtle colors. The dye is gray-blue to brown depending on the type of geranium. The dried blooms of Geranium dissectum, the cut-leafed cranesbill, produce a brown dye.

Geranium Oil Infusion

• Make an oil infusion for use on your skin by nearly filling a jar with dry geranium blooms. Add enough good quality olive oil to cover all the blooms and leave it to stand in the sunshine for two weeks. Shake the jar every day, and then strain out the flowers and keep the scented oil in a cool place. It will keep up to three months.