How to Prune Container Geraniums

Snap with your fingers or cut with a hand pruners flower stems that have finished their blossoming. Cut them at the base where the flower stems meets the larger plant branch. This is called deadheading and makes the plant look tidy as well as encourages more flowers.

Make crisp, one-motion cuts with the hand pruners, removing all dead or damaged stems on the container geranium plant. Locate pruning cuts one-fourth inch above an alive leaf or at a junction with another healthy stem branch. Cutting away dead or diseased stems can be done at any time.

Reduce the length of leggy stems by half to three-fourths with a crisp pruning cut. Making the cut in tan, semi-woody stem tissue is better than in soft, green new growth stems. This reductive pruning is best done in late winter or early spring just before new growth accelerates.

Selectively cut back leggy stems, those that are long, thin or are nude of foliage, as needed during the growing season. Discontinue pruning back leggy stems six to eight weeks before the expected first autumn frost date as the new growth will not mature to produce flowers in time.