PlantFiles: Ivy Geranium, Ivy-leaf Geranium
Pelargonium peltatum

Lovely plants. I had a red-flowered one that I treated as an annual, but beautiful none-the-less. I plan on getting several this spring, and overwintering them in my newly purchases greenhouse.

These plants are a landscaping staple in Southern California. I've seen them climbing up to eight feet through other shrubs. Ivies have lighter green foliage than the zonal types and come with single and double flowers. The single varieties are more vigorous. In cool maritime climates, ivies bloom best in the sun, but they are quite shade-tolerant -- I have one plant which blooms reliably with only 2-3 hours of sun a day. Because the leaves are semi-succulent, they're pretty drought-tolerant too but bloom best with regular water.

These plants are only annuals in areas with frosts. I have plants that are over 10years old rambling through a high hedge. They are good climbers but don't smother the hedge as ivy would. They flower all year round though with an obvious peak in late Spring/early Summer. They need no particular care and get cut back with the electric shears along with the hedge. If not pruned this brutally they will grow more densely and grow rapidly. The best use I've seen of them is concealing an old retaining wall. The spectacular flowering when many plants are starting to look stressed from the Summer heat turned an eyesore into a show-stopper.

Ivy-leaf geraniums come in as many varieties as the more common zonal-geraniums. Many are variegated, many of the flowers are bi-colored or tri-colored.

Propagation is very easy, but pelargoniums are susceptible to many diseases, so extreme care should be taken to maintain sterile conditions until the new plant is well-established. Named cultivars will not come true from seed; they must be propagated vegetatively.