Hanging Basket Plants – Ivy Pelargonium

We love Ivy Geraniums – and they perform very well in hanging planters and hanging baskets – in this great article below scented leaf pelargonium are discussed and there benefits as a plant for your next hanging basket or hanging planter are expounded.

MyHangingBaskets.com shares helpful information and articles like this to encourage gardening success.  If you pass this along please acknowledge the author Constance Craig Smith. 

Scent of success: For a dizzying range of garden-filling fragrances, nothing performs like scented-leaf pelargonium.

In Victorian times, no bouquet was complete without a sprig of scented-leaf pelargonium; the variety a lady chose depended on whether she wanted the scent of lemon, lavender, apples, oranges, roses, almonds or even cinnamon and nutmeg. And pelargonium weren’t just used in posies: the Victorians used them in cookery, in potpourris and scented oils, and as prized house plants.

After more than a century in the doldrums, these delightful plants are being discovered once again by today’s gardeners.

We at Garden Squirrel highly recommend Ivy Geranium in hanging baskets.  They are one of the old fashioned flowers being rediscovered by today's gardeners. 

They may not have the flamboyance of the zonal and regal pelargonium that flower so brightly in window boxes and hanging baskets throughout the summer, but scented-leaf pelargonium have a subtle charm that is irresistible once you discover them.

Scented pelargonium are thought to have arrived in Britain from South Africa in the late 18th century. They soon became something of a craze, with gardeners competing to display the best plants at flower shows.

Pelargonium 'Attar of Roses': It smells deliciously of roses and has pale mauve flowers
Thrifty housewives used the leaves as an inexpensive way to scent linens, flavour puddings and teas, and make scented sugars. The range of scents on offer was dizzying: everything from rose, lemon, lime, orange, apple and violet to almond, myrrh, peppermint, pine and anise.

The flowers of scented-leaf pelargoniums tend to be pretty but not showy; the real stars are the leaves, which conceal tiny sacs of oil. These sacs are ruptured when the leaves are brushed or rubbed against. With some varieties, even watering the plant will release the heady fragrance into the air.

The range of scents on offer was dizzying: everything from rose, lemon to peppermint and anise

One of the most popular varieties, and a good one for a beginner, is Pelargonium ‘Attar of Roses’. It smells deliciously of roses and has pale mauve flowers. If you’re after an orange scent, try ‘Prince of Orange’, which has quite showy white flowers streaked with purple.
For a lemon fragrance, grow Pelargonium crispum ‘Variegatum’ or P. ‘Citronella’, or if you’re after a fresh apple scent, try P. odoratissimum, which produces clusters of pretty white flowers. If you want cinnamon-scented leaves to use in cakes and biscuits, go for P. x fragrans ‘Ardwick Cinnamon’.

During the summer, scented-leaf pelargoniums can be grown outdoors in pots or in the ground, but they won’t survive a cold, wet British winter, so bring them indoors from late September.

They need a light, airy place but as long as the temperature is more than 7ºC, they’ll flower off and on all through winter. If you want to increase your stock, it’s easy to take cuttings in the summer months; they should root within a few weeks.
By Constance Craig Smith

More on Growing Ivy Geraniums in a Hanging Planter

Ivy Geranium, Plants for Hanging Baskets

Make this Hanging Basket of Geraniums

Geranium trailing and zonal plants for hanging baskets

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