The Pretty Geranium That Might Be The Answer To Your Wasp Problem

Of the many things Mother Nature can do to ruin your enjoyment of the great outdoors, having wasps hanging out in your yard, porch, and garden may be pretty high up on the list. While it may seem like wasps want to sting you, they would rather be left alone. But when you're sharing space with them, they can become aggravated with you pretty quickly and show their distaste for your presence with a sting or two. 

While there may be some things attracting wasps to your yard, you can also deter them. If you're tired of dealing with wasps, consider growing a plant that will chase them away. The ivy leaf geranium (Pelargonium peltatum) not only brings beauty to your yard, but it is also a flowering plant that wasps don't like.

Before investing in ivy leaf geraniums, check your hardiness zone. These plants thrive in zones 10 through 12 if you want them to grow as perennials. If you're not in those zones, don't fret — you can still grow ivy leaf geraniums in cooler zones, but they will be annuals. They can grow stems up to 5 feet long, and have a few colors to choose from (you might want some of each): purple, pink, and red. It's essential to know how to care for your ivy leaf geraniums if you want them to thrive and keep those wasps away. Where you grow them will matter as well.

It's the scent of the ivy leaf geranium that the wasps don't like. While it might be mild and pleasant to humans, and even bees are attracted to them for pollination, wasps will avoid them. Since they're going to repel wasps, you'll want to plant these geraniums in areas where you wish wasps to stay away from. You can pot them and keep them on your porch, trellis them along your pergola, plant them as a border plant around the house, or create a garden of them in your favorite space in the yard. If you're using hanging pots for your geraniums, you can move them around the yard with you when needed — say, you're heading to the gazebo for lunch but you don't have any ivy leaf geraniums in that area. Just grab one or two of the plants from the porch and bring them back when you're done enjoying a wasp-free meal.

To flourish, ivy leaf geranium plants require full sun, but will do okay in partial shade. They require moist soil with good drainage, so be sure that if you're potting them, there are ample drainage holes. Opt for loose and loamy soils for good aeration, something the roots of these plants love — only water when the topsoil has become dry.