Question
Hi there, I live in Southern California and I have been trying to grow Red Ivy Geraniums from 2 separate balconies. The flowers are in iron planters lined with hay baskets. I have 3 plants in 1 basket total of 7 baskets. They've been there over a year and they don't seem to grow. The leaves turn black or they get red spots, the stems turn brown and hard. They get plenty of sunlight and I water them every 2-3 days during Summer at night. I don't know what else to do. The plants look like they're dying so I will have to get new ones and replant.

Should I put a plastic inside the hay liner ? Theres also spiders & worms on the balconies which feed off the leaves. I've tried to spray the plants and also kill off the spiders. Is there another plant that will cascade over the balcony that I can maybe try?

Answer
Rosie,
There may be a couple of things going on here...
First of all, have you been fertilizing them over the past year they've been in the baskets?  You'll need to fertilize any plant in these baskets from February through September for best results. You could use a liquid fertilizer mixed according to the directions, applied after the plants have been well watered. (Never fertilize a thirsty plant!) Or you could apply a time-release product once every three months starting in February with the last application in August.

Did you trim the plants back in January? With geraniums you'll want to trim them back in the late winter in order to stimulate new growth.  

If the baskets are small, and there isn't much dirt, applying a top dressing of new soil mixed with either compost or earth worm castings would be helpful in the future. In any size basket the soil gets depleted after one summer, so applying a new layer in January or February is helpful to keeping soil fertile.

Spiders don't usually hurt plants and in fact may be killing off the "bad bugs" so I wouldn't worry about them. If there are larvae eating the leaves, you can spray with any product that has Spinosad as its active ingredients (such as Captain Jack's Dead Bug Spray) which is very safe for us and plants but toxic to most larvae.

Plastic is likely to keep the baskets too wet unless you cut drainage holes in the bottom. If your temperatures are very hot (and I remember from my days of living in Leucadia, CA that they are hot and sunny!) it might be a good idea to line with plastic to prevent the baskets from getting bone dry repeatedly.  Even with plastic lining, with drainage holes, you might have to water every day in the AM if the temps are above 90.  

Leaves turning black and red are under stress from drying out, plus may have a fungal condition due to being wet all night. In general, it's better to water in the morning if you can so that the leaves don't stay wet all night. If you need to water at night, try to do so without splashing water on the foliage.

If you want to start fresh at this point, be sure to start with new soil. Follow the guidelines above. You might try a mix of the ivy geraniums and trailing verbena. Verbena is very heat tolerant and combines well with geraniums.

I hope this helps,
C.L.