Types

• Every spring nurseries and garden centers sell flowering geraniums grown from seed or from vegetative cuttings. Geraniums are easier and faster to grow from cuttings than from seed, but retail growers can produce seed flats less expensively.
  
  

Seed Grown Geraniums

• Geranium seeds are tiny and have a hard coat that must be pierced or damaged to get them to sprout. Once germinated, geraniums grown from seed take at least 90 days to reach maturity and flower. Growers must start seed grown geraniums indoors in early February in order to have them ready for May sale.
  
  

Cutting Geraniums

• Geraniums are very easy to grow from vegetative cuttings. A branch of a geranium plant is cut and then placed in rooting medium, where it grows roots in only a day or two and becomes a new plant. Propagating some varieties from cuttings is necessary in order to get the geranium to flower true to color.
  
  

Overwintering Cutting Geraniums

• Vegetative cutting geraniums can be brought indoors before first frost and kept as houseplants. In the spring, gardeners may cut and root new geranium plants from the cutting geraniums they grew the year before. Cutting geraniums make attractive houseplants that require minimal care.
  
  

Considerations

• Whether cutting or seed geraniums are right for any specific garden application depends on the variety, the budget and the gardener. Some geranium varieties are only available as vegetative cutting plants. Seed grown geraniums are a bit less expensive when purchased by the flat, but vegetative cutting geraniums are easier to bring inside and propagate at home.