Europe's balcony classic against America's hanging-basket default. The table splits the ticket.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
Neither carries enough published cut-flower data for an honest vase verdict, so this duel is settled in the garden.
In the garden
On upkeep the table sides with petunia: rated low maintenance against medium.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Geranium | Petunia |
|---|---|---|
| Fragrance | Foliage aromatic when bruised; flowers not notably fragrant | Sweetly fragrant, strongest in white and lavender cultivars, mainly in the evening |
| Light | Full sun to part shade | Full sun to part shade; tolerates heavy shade but blooms suffer |
| Water | Medium, allow soil to dry between waterings | Medium moisture, good drainage required |
| Hardiness zones | 10 to 11 | 10 to 11.5 |
| Bloom months | 5 months | 6 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C); NC State separately calls it seldom damaged |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Toxic | Listed non-toxic |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit the question is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is shown. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.
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