Prince of Orange PelargoniumsPrince of Orange PelargoniumsPrince of Orange Pelargoniums

Prince of Orange Pelargonium Plants

Pelargonium Prince of OrangeFeefo logo

The details

  • Uses: pot pourri, culinary, ornamental
  • Harvest: citrus-scented leaves, May-Nov
  • Storage: use dried and fresh
  • Height: 30cm
  • Flower colour: pink
  • Flowering: Jun-Sep
  • Spacing: 40cm
  • Life: tender perennial
  • RHS Award of Garden Merit
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Description

Prince of Orange Scented-Leaf Pelargonium Plants

Prince of Orange is a citrus-scented pelargonium with beautiful scallop-shaped leaves and clusters of dainty pale-pink flowers all summer long, if you're diligent with the deadheading. Reliable, elegant and headily perfumed, they're bushy plants perfect for hanging baskets, pots and window boxes in full sun. The bright green foliage releases its citrus-scented oils when bathed in sunshine, brushed past or crushed. The dainty five-petalled flowers are open and splashed with purple at the base. Blooming begins in June and will carry on into early autumn. The leaves can be used dried or fresh, for making pot pourri, or in the kitchen for flavouring teas, jams, cordials and bakes. Being a tender perennial, it won't survive below 5°C, so you'll need to bring your plants indoors or to a greenhouse for winter.

Browse our other Pelargonium varieties.

Features

  • Uses: pot pourri, ornamental, plus culinary flavouring including jams, teas, vinegars and cordials
  • Harvest: citrus-scented leaves, May to November
  • Storage: use dried or fresh
  • Height: 30cm
  • Scent: pungent citrus
  • Flower colour: pale pink with dark pink streaks
  • Flowering: June to September
  • Spacing: 40cm
  • Life: tender perennial; bring indoors over winter
  • RHS Award of Garden Merit
  • Pot grown; delivery while stocks last

Growing Prince of Orange Pelargoniums

The perfect spot for pelargoniums is a pot, window box or hanging basket of multi-purpose compost. This way you can easily move them indoors for winter to escape frosts. In beds and borders, they thrive in well-drained loamy soil enriched with garden compost or leaf mould. In all cases, pelargoniums demand a sunny spot to flower and perform well. They're a drought-tolerant species from South Africa, so will do well in a baked spot on the patio where other bedding or pot plants flop and struggle. Here, the scented oils in the foliage will really come into their own too, filling the air with heady wafts of scent.

When growing on small plants received in early or mid spring, acclimatise them slowly to outdoor temperatures by popping them outside for a couple of hours a day at first, and gradually increasing the time spent outdoors until they're out all day and in a greenhouse or coldframe overnight. From mid to late May, once the danger of frosts has passed, plant around 40cm apart, packing them in for impact and maximum scent power, then water in well.

Through spring and summer, keep your pelargoniums lightly watered and feed with a high-potash tomato feed every fortnight to keep the flowers coming. Deadheading regularly throughout the flowering season will also encourage more blooms.

In autumn, cut back your plants by around a third and move them in to a greenhouse, cold frame or a cool windowsill in the house. Water sparingly over winter, letting the compost dry out between watering, then start acclimatising them to the outdoors again in spring.

Planting Companions for Prince of Orange

A hanging basket or window box packed with just one variety of pelargonium is a classic for good reason. In a sunny spot the perfume will billow out and provide cheer throughout the summer months. Another alternative is a large pot combined with other sun-lovers; silver-leaved Plectranthrus provides a lovely foil for the green and pink of Prince of Orange, while scented heliotropes will up the perfume ante.

Did you know?

This is a pelargonium cultivar with pedigree, dating back to the 1880s.

The name Pelargonium comes from the Greek for 'stork', pelargos, which refers to the stork's beak shape of the seedheads.

All scented-leaved pelargoniums hail from a native species on South Africa's Cape, where they grow wild and woody on the sunny hillsides.

There are seven different groups of pelargoniums: decorative, ivy-leaved, angel, regal, species, unique and scented-leaved. As you might expect the scented-leaved varieties have perfumed foliage, in an unexpectedly large range, from peppermint to rose, cinnamon, mint, balsam and citrus. Their flowers are more unassuming than most of the other groups, can be grown easily from cuttings and also make good indoor houseplants.

Bees: Hoverflies and bees love their open flowers.

Planting Instructions

How to plant Pelargonium Prince of Orange

Choose a spot with as much light as possible. Improve the soil from the hole by removing roots, weeds, large stones and other rubbish and mixing in about 25% by volume of well-rotted compost or manure.

Position your Prince of Orange plants 40cm apart, then backfill the hole with mixed soil and compost, firming it gently as you go. Water in thoroughly.

Deadhead. Trim back in autumn. Bring indoors or to a coldframe or greenhouse.