Geranniums-dead heading!

[Andy]

Hi, can anyone help?.... i know you are supposed to 'dead head' geranniums but are we supposed to remove the stem as well or leave the stem in situ? I have had conflicting advise on this...

[Hoddy]

I cut the stem to the nearest "joint". It seems to work.

Hoddy

[Rob Roy]

So do I, otherwise there would be an awful lot of stems sticking up between the flowers[blink]

[Liz]

[quote user="Andy "]Hi, can anyone help?.... i know you are supposed to 'dead head' geranniums but are we supposed to remove the stem as well or leave the stem in situ? I have had conflicting advise on this...[/quote]

If you mean pelargoniums (the bright red, pink or white things that go in widow boxes etc) I agree with what has been said.  Most of them seem to have a natural breaking off point where the flower stem joins the main plant, just twist or bend, it's rarely necessary to cut. 

But if you mean true geraniums, which are usually a smallish or medium sized herbaceous hummock with pink, blue or white flowers starting about this time of the year, you would cut off the dead flowers.  I usually trim with sheers or secateurs just to keep the plants tidy.  Could explain why there is conflicting advice.

Liz

[Gardian]

Liz is 100% correct.

[Cassis]

Just to chuck in my two-penn'orth, if you have hardy geraniums (i.e. real geraniums, not pelargoniums) then if you use the shears as Liz says to trim them quite severely, you may be lucky and get another (smaller) flush of flowers.

Phil