Black Velvet Scarlet Hybrid Geranium Seeds

Add some dramatic color to the sunny garden and your best containers with this simmering combination of scarlet and black. Another new color for the famous Black Velvet (formerly 'Black Magic') series of geraniums, Scarlet wows with big, bright red blooms, but even they are no match for the one-of-a-kind foliage—rich, chocolatey-maroon hues from spring through fall. There has never been a series like the Black Velvets, and you're going to love how they look in your garden and containers.

This almost completely "zoned" (darker colored) foliage is absolutely unique in the Geranium world. The leaves are large, lobed, and serrated, almost uniformly smoky-black except for a crisp green edging. Lovely from the moment the foliage emerges in spring, in summer it becomes even more striking with masses of small, bowl-shaped blooms.

Scarlet joins its 2002 All-America Selection winning cousin Black Velvet Rose (already one of Park Seed gardeners' all-time favorite geraniums), appleblossom, and salmon. The entire series is also available in a money-saving collection, too. If you love zonal geraniums AND big, brilliant blooms, this is the variety you must try.

One glance tells you why this series is so popular. The foliage is not only colorful but so fresh and pertly held, complementing the blooms yet showy enough to stand alone. This plant reaches 10 to 14 inches tall and 14 to 18 inches wide—the perfect size for a series of large pots marching up the porch steps, a colorful window box, or a low-hanging basket on the patio. It's great in the garden, too, offering lovely highlights from spring through fall.

A sun-lover, Black Velvet Scarlet takes a bit longer to flower than many pelargoniums—give it about 18 weeks from sowing. (Shucks. Nothing to do but admire all that luscious foliage.) Once it begins to flower, however, there's no stopping it. Like all pelargoniums, it appreciates a good feed, and I recommend Algoflash, an incredible liquid fertilizer that made its name helping gardeners grow stupendous geraniums.