Each year professionals in horticulture select one flower to showcase for its ease in growing, versatility in use, popularity, adaptability and genetic diversity. The geranium is the starlet for 2012.
The red geraniums familiar to most gardeners as potted or bedding plants are botanically pelargoniums rather than true geraniums. Pelargoniums are native to South Africa whereas the true geranium like the Carolina cranesbill, Geranium carolinianum, is native to North America. Both genera are in the Geraniaceae family. Putting nomenclature and homeland aside, geraniums offer wide variation in flower color and scent, growth habit, and leaf shape.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing geraniums to America. In 1786, he sent plants from France to horticulturist John Bartram in Philadelphia who introduced them to American gardeners.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Columbia Star