winter care for geraniums.

Question

Your article suggests pruning the geraniums back by one-third. Does that mean cut all the stalks so that they are only two-thirds as tall, or cut out one-third of all the stalks?

Answer 1

Both methods are fine. The reason for this advice is that with geraniums and many other ornamentals, removing more than 1/3 of the plant’s total size at one pruning session can harm the plant’s health or reduce future flowering. (Some plants can tolerate harsher pruning, though.) Pruning back each stalk to 2/3 its size will encourage “bushier” growth, while removing 1/3 of the stalks will encourage taller, less bushy growth.