How to Cut Spent Blooms on Geraniums

A colorful geranium is one of the more popular and dependable annual flowers a gardener can plant in a garden or container. With proper amounts of water and fertilizer, a geranium will bloom profusely and steadily throughout the growing season. Make sure you keep your geranium plants looking their best and in tiptop condition by cutting the spent blooms as they begin to fade.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You’ll Need

• Geranium
• Pruning shears

1. Watch the geranium plant daily to keep on top of the blooms as they begin to fade.
2. Use the pruning shears to clip off each bloom and entire stem from the geranium plant. Cut the stem just above the main stalk for best results.
3. Dispose of the stems and faded blossoms in a compost bin, if possible.

Tips & Warnings

• Remove the entire stem from the geranium plant for several reasons. One reason is because the stems are unsightly and a geranium plant will appear overgrown and unattractive when it has stems sticking out at various angles. Another reason for removing the stems is that leaving a stem on the geranium requires the plant to continue to use energy to support it. The stem will never produce another bloom, so removing it is the best course of action. Removing entire stems will also encourage the geranium plant to grow additional lateral stems and the plant will become fuller and have more blossoms in the future.