I am with Al on this - I have about 4 zonal geraniums in hanging baskets, and about 6 more in pots by the pool deck. I hard prune them about once or twice a year, and feed them well with fertilizer after that. But I end up changing them every 3 years with brand new plants altogether. Just did that last weekend in fact when Home Depot was having their 1.99 sale on zonal geraniums. Another thing to keep in mind is that the zonal geraniums come in the annual vs perennial variety - thats probably just labeling for legal reasons. But the perennial ones are definitely hardier than the annual ones.

Yes mandolis-- they are cutting from the growing tips of mature geraniums. The purpose of laying them out to callus over is to partly seal the end so the cutting can't take up as much moisture. It gets enough to send out roots but not excess moisture which can cause blackleg in geranium cuttings. The leaves do wilt but at least some of the leaves on each cutting perk up once they are planted. I learned this trick from an expert gardener and it really works. I've been at this for years. The first few years I ever did I didn't callus them over and I lost about half every time. Then I learned the trick of callusing them over and it cut down dramatically on my losses but I still lost a few. This year combined with lessons of the past I think I've finally found the secret of not losing any

A fungicide drench will certainly help, but in most cases will not eliminate rust. On the backs of the leaves, the areas are raised and fuzzy in texture as well as rust colored. This is because rust is spread by spores and that is where they are. The most important step in eliminating rust is to rogue out the infected/leaves or plants, so that the spores are not present and able to infect further.

My sister brought home a cutting of a beautiful, pure red, semi-double zonal from Co. Clare a couple of years ago. Lately she gave me a couple of plants from the few she now has; I noticed last week by chance and have confirmed constantly since that the leaves do not have the pungent scent zonal geraniums usually have, they in fact have no scent whatsoever. My sister didn't notice this because she unfortunately has no sense of smell. Has anyone heard of a plant such as this? I would be interested to know if it is a named cultivar.