Geranium companion plants prevent gardeners from using harmful chemicals and stressful measures when growing geraniums in their gardens. Geraniums, also known as cranesbills, are easy-care annuals or perennials that show brightly colored flowers when they bloom in spring.
Their flowers, which come in shades of pink, white, red, purple, or orange, create show-stoppers in your garden when grown with other plants. If you want your garden to enjoy companion planting benefits, here are some good plants you can cultivate with your geraniums.
Contents
Types of Easy-care Geranium Companion Plants
1. Chives
Chives are long, thin members of the onion family, and their onion-like scent makes them a popular flavoring in many kitchens. Their edible cylindrical leaves are soft and hollow, producing purple or pink flowers that attract many pollinators, including bumblebees. Chives are plants that grow big in number, and they are quite easy to grow and offer significant benefits to your geranium plants.
– Benefits
Chives attract pollinators, such as butterflies and bees, that can cross-pollinate your geranium and improve its foliage. Geraniums are prone to attack from pests such as the Japanese beetle.
However, as they have an onion smell that fills the air, it would help deter these pests. Aphids are also common geranium insects, and chives attract ladybugs that feed on them.
– Growing Requirements
Chives are stress-free, easy-to-grow plants. They grow best in full sunlight but can also thrive in partial shade. They can grow in different types of soil, but it must be well-drained and moist. Once they get established, these long shoots are drought-resistant and can survive without constant watering. Laslty, they can also be grown in containers and make excellent geranium companion plants in pots.
2. Sage
Sage is a common culinary herb that contains antioxidants that are beneficial to human health. This hardy perennial has grayish-green or variegated leaves that exude an intense minty aroma and are used to prepare many types of dishes.
However, some species of sage are grown as ornamentals due to their eye-catching leaves and purple, red, white, or pink flowers that would bloom in spring time. In addition to this, the flowers of the sage plant attract a variety of pollinators, such as hummingbirds and bees which would be helpful for the pollination process.
– Benefits
Sage plants grow tall, so they can provide shade for your hardy geraniums when you grow them together.
The deep purple colors of sage flowers help to add some depth and color to the geranium’s foliage.
– Growing Requirements
Sage is best planted in spring or fall and, just like geranium, should be grown in rich, acidic, moist, loamy, or sandy, well-draining soil. It requires full sun of up to six hours daily but can tolerate some shade in certain hardiness zones 8-10.
On the other hand, remember that sage is drought tolerant but would appreciate light watering once a week during its growing season. In addition, it would help if you never left the roots soggy, as this can damage young plants, and they won’t establish themselves.
3. Catnip
Catnip is an easy-to-grow herbaceous perennial popularly grown for its minty leaves and effect on cats. The lemon or mint-scented leaves contain an essential oil called nepetalactone, which stimulates the sensory neurons of cats when inhaled, causing them to get highly excited for up to 15 minutes, which is why they love it and as a result, during this period, they behave like animals on steroids.
However, not all cats are susceptible to its effects, and even kittens are also not affected by it.
– Benefits
Cats might love the smell of catnip, but when used to grow geraniums in the garden, the scent of catnip repels pests such as the Japanese beetle and aphids notorious for attacking geraniums. In some cultures, catnip is also used to cure fevers and as a seasoning in foods.
– Growing Requirements
Catnips are fast-growing plants that are tolerant of any type of soil, whether sandy, rocky, loamy, nutrient-poor, rich, dry, or moist. However, no matter what soil you choose, it must be well-draining soil with slight acidity or alkalinity, so that this plant establishes itself
It grows best in only full sunlight, so you must make sure that it receives up to six hours of uninterrupted light on a daily basis. Catnip is drought-tolerant and mature plants can survive without water for a while. But you can water young catnip plants lightly every week.
4. Nasturtiums
If you are looking for beautiful, easy-to-grow, and hardy geranium companion plants, nasturtiums are your best bet. These annual or perennial plants bloom with lots of vibrant pink, yellow, orange, cream, burgundy, red, white, or marbled flowers that easily compliment your geranium’s foliage, adding color to your garden as well. These flowers and the leaves are also edible with a slightly peppery zest. Nasturtiums can grow as bushes, dwarfs, or climbers and are ideal for hanging baskets.
– Benefits
Nasturtiums are often used as trap crops because they attract aphids, thereby drawing them away from geranium plants.
They also repel the Japanese beetle that can attack the geraniums, and as a result, both your plants will be kept safe, away from any harm.
– Growing Requirements
Nasturtiums are great with geraniums because they have similar growing requirements. The plant grows well in rich, moist, well-draining, acidic, neutral, or alkaline soil. However, it produces better flowers in nutrient-poor soil that drains well.
Also note that in order to grow and establish it, you must locate it in a spot where it receives full sunlight of up to eight hours daily but does well in partial shade during hot weather. Lastly, the watering process should be done weekly, but nasturtiums can survive a slight drought.
5. Rose
Roses are one of every gardener’s favorite plants. They are not cultivated for their beautiful flowers, but they also produce a pleasant scent that fills the garden. The flowers of the rose plant are showy and usually grow in various shapes and sizes with colors from red, pink, orange, white, or crimson, and at times even in different shades mixed. The leaves are oval, dark green, and alternate. These perennial plants can grow as erect or climbing shrubs with stems with various sizes of thorns, sometimes smaller and at times bigger and sharper.
– Benefits
Roses grow well with hardy geraniums as their colors aesthetically complement each other. Geraniums help to under plant roses by covering the bottom of the plant and prevent diseases like blight or wilt by repelling insects like blackflies and gnats that cause them.
– Growing Requirements
Like most of the other cranesbill geranium companion plants listed here, roses also thrive in full sun for up to six to eight hours daily. Although some types of roses can survive in partial shade, others will not bloom appropriately in the shade. They can grow in almost any kind of soil but prefer moist, nutrient-rich, acidic to neutral, well-draining soil. Make sure the soil doesn’t let excess water staying in the soil, or else, the roots won’t develop properly.
6. Marigold
Marigolds are fast and easy-to-grow plants that are perfect for beginner gardeners. These annual herbs are heat lovers and bloom best throughout the summertime, producing bright yellow, orange, red, or gold flowers. The reason for the vast colors of blooms is that Marigolds come in over 50 species.
These flowers have daisy-like heads that can grow singly or clustered and attract beneficial insects to your gardens, such as butterflies and bees.
– Benefits
Aside from their beautiful, vibrant foliage, marigolds are popularly grown to repel pests effectively.
Geraniums are prone to attacks from pests like slugs, but marigolds are perfect for repelling slugs. They also repel mosquitoes from the garden, and these flying creatures won’t come any closer because as the smell of the flowers get strong and fill the space.
– Growing Requirements
Marigolds thrive in heat, so typically, they grow best in full sunlight of up to eight hours, as any form of shade will produce a minimal bloom and make them prone to powdery dew.
They do not require rich soil to grow but need it to be slightly nutrient-rich, moist, neutral, and well-draining. On the other hand, the young or newly sprouting marigolds need constant watering daily, and older ones require it weekly as they become more drought-tolerant once they mature.
Conclusion
Geraniums are beautiful plants and can grow suitably with many plants. These plants offer protection from pests and aesthetic benefits, which is why we have given you the best plant options to grow with your geranium plants. Here are a few highlights:
- Always ensure that you grow plants with similar growing requirements to your geranium plant.
- It is best to grow these companion plants where they will receive enough sunlight.
- What to plant with red geraniums: ivy, sweet potato vine, alliums, verbena, etc.
- Can you plant geraniums with “herbs”? Yes, geraniums can be planted with herbs such as chives and catnip.
If you want to eliminate the use of chemicals in your garden while adding aesthetic value to your landscape, you should combine these plants with your geraniums.
References
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/chives-allium-schoenoprasum/
https://extension.umn.edu/flowers/marigolds
https://plantvillage.psu.edu/topics/sage/infos
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