I inherited, somewhat against my will, three geranium plants. Now, one of them has grown so tall that I’m worried it won’t be able to support itself on its stalk and it will fall over.
Is this a reasonable worry? If I do need to trim my plant back, how should I do it and where should I cut?
Yes, it’s “leggy”, as they say, and could use some TLC. Rule of thumb is don’t take more than 1/3 of the total plant at once, or you’ll shock it to death.
In this case, I’d snip off the top 1/3 of that stalk with a very sharp knife (does less damage than a dull one, or scissors) and pinch off some of the bottom leaves from what you’ve cut off and put the stem in some water. There should be no leaves in the water or they’ll mold. Change the water out every day or two and soon you’ll see roots growing from the stem. Congratulations, you now have three geranium plants! Gently plant it in some soil.
I’m not entirely confident that the remainder of the current plant will ever thrive, to be honest. It should, theoretically, grow two new stems from where you cut it and leaf off both of them, getting bushier like a geranium should be, but I’m not sure it’s got enough leaves left on the bottom 2/3 to feed it.
I’m no expert on geraniums, but I think it would grow back from virtually any kind of cutting.
I used to grow geranium cuttings by taking a plant like that, cutting a long stem off and then cutting that into pieces about 8" long, with all leaves removed. I’d put each piece in water until roots grew, then plant them in the ground outside. About 75% lived to become healthy plans in their own right.
There’s also the option of putting a wood or metal stake into the pot, and tying the stalk up to that stake.
Thanks for all the advice!
I used a razor to cut the top third off my plant this weekend and put the cutting in water. Three days later, my cutting hasn’t sprouted any roots, but the leaves are still healthy and unwilted, so I’m hoping for the best.
I was apologizing aloud to my plant as I cut it… who knew a geranium could worm its way into my heart like this?
If you didn’t cut it near a node (where leaves come out of the stem), and there’s a long stem above the last node, I’d cut it back again to just above that node. Nothing’s going to grow back from the long piece of stem, and it can rot back and take the rest of the plant with it. Just take the razor you used before, eyeball up about 1/4" above the highest leaf node still on the plant, and cut there (you can cut straight across but cutting at a relatively shallow slant (highest part on the side with that last node, lowest part on the opposite side) is better).
Yep, you generally want to trim stalks/shoots back to half an inch or so above an internode (where you can see a swelling or tiny new leaves) which will be the source of a new shoot.
I don’t have access to the OPs photos at present, but leggy geraniums can be trimmed back more than one-third, as long as the resulting plant has a few internodes from which to regenerate growth.
Geraniums get leggy over time, especially when they don’t get enough sun. New plants from cuttings usually are more vigorous and look better.
Coincidentally enough :dubious::eek: just yesterday I heavily cut back a couple of potted geranium plants that had overwintered indoors and planted them in an annual border.