Ivy Geranium to Take Us from Spring into Summer

Spring is the time for tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. But because these cannot take us into summer with blooms and color, it makes sense to seek out other plants such as geraniums that will flower for months on end. Ivy Geranium plants have a full and cascading growing habit that makes them ideal for containers and window boxes. They not only have lush foliage, but they also have colorful and airy blooms that appear throughout the summer.

When I think of geraniums, I picture one of the Zonals, with puff-balls of flowers on tall stems and upright growth. But Pelargonium peltatum, the Ivy Geranium, has airy flowers and cascading foliage. Popular in Europe for centuries, it is fairly new to many North American gardeners. It will open up a whole new way for us to enjoy geraniums.

Pelargonium peltatum 'Crocodile' is one excellent example of an Ivy Geranium. It has no puff-balls and no tall stems, and its cascading foliage fills and spreads while the plant gradually gains height. Not the typical upright beauty we use in planter boxes, Pelargonium peltatum is great in elevated mixed containers that look best when overflowing with greenery and light sprays of blooms.

I recently heard a grower of several varieties of Ivy Geranium remark that our garden centers, accustomed to stocking the Zonals which stay upright and spread only minimally, would have to make room for bushier plants in an Ivy Geranium display. The garden centers would not need to deadhead these plants, as they do with the Zonals. Ivy Geranium plants are self-cleaning. But they would need to be prepared for a bit of confetti-spray of petals as the flowers mature.

I believe that the extra “real estate” required of Pelargonium peltatum ‘Crocodile’ and other Ivy Geranium plants would seem more a benefit to the home gardener than an issue. A plant that fills space with abundant foliage and pretty flowers can grow just about as large as it wants in most home gardens, for lush growth is typically the gardener’s aim.

The highly patterned foliage of Pelargonium peltatum ‘Crocodile’ is a like a mosaic of bright and lemony-lime green tones with creamy-green "grout". The veining on the plant’s lobed leaves is as intricate as can be. But it is the way the leaves populate the stems and trail that gives this plant its full-foliage look, leaf layered upon leaf. This fullness and fluidity make this plant ideal for placement anywhere it can spill with ease. In places where we need the look of abundance and overflowing beauty, we can use an Ivy Geranium.

To get North American gardeners like me prepared for what an Ivy Geranium has to offer, the best course of action for growers may be to share where we might have seen these plants in the past. Growers might ask us if we have seen travel photos of Alpine villages with wooden window boxes spilling over with full and trailing geraniums. Would an Ivy Geranium make the cut in these displays…? Absolutely. These are likely Ivy Geranium plants of one sort or another. And so, taking some direction from these photos or travel memories, we know what we can do at our own homes with these plants.

While virtually all varieties of Ivy Geranium are attractive, Pelargonium peltatum ‘Crocodile’ is special in that it seems to glow in the light. Its green leaves seem highlighted in golden tones in the strong sun, and the plant seems to be visibly warmed by the sunlight it craves. But gardeners should expect that sun-loving Pelargonium peltatum ‘Crocodile’ does best in moderate temperatures rather than very high heat. If we live in regions where hard frosts do not occur, we can maintain Pelargonium peltatum ‘Crocodile’ outdoors indefinitely. But those of us in cooler regions should take it in for overwintering, along with other varieties of Ivy Geranium.

So, let’s savor springtime. But when it passes, Ivy Geranium is a plant, beloved abroad and just coming into its own here, which will continue to light up our days.