Zonal Pelargonium "Raphaella Scarlet" F1

Pelargonium zonale "Raphaella Scarlet" F1 - Pelargonium zonale.
Perennial houseplant and summer annual for the garden.
New hybrids of the "RAPHAELLA" F1 series are a luxurious example of modern breeding: their beautiful, compact bushes 30 cm high are well-branched, look strong, dense and dense, with lush balls of inflorescences (about 12 cm in diameter).
It grows easily and quickly from seeds - seedlings appear in 1-1.5 weeks, blooming at an early stage of development.
The application is universal: potted keeping in rooms, on sunny balconies and as a summer annual in garden flower beds.
Plants are not only resistant to heat, but also tolerate short-term temperature drops well. With proper care (regular feeding and lighting in winter), they bloom all year round.
Sowing: grown through seedlings.
Seedlings are picked in the phase of one or two true leaves. When the seedlings reach 8-10 cm, the tops of the shoots are pinched to stimulate branching. Seedlings are planted in open ground when the threat of frost has passed.

* Seed propagation of pelargonium is very profitable: despite the relative high cost of seeds, they have high germination rates and allow you to get a large number of seedlings; compact, beautiful bushes with an abundance of large caps of flowers grow from seeds. 
Pelargonium seeds are large, covered with a dense leathery shell. It takes 5-6 months from sowing seeds to the beginning of flowering. Pelargonium seeds can be sown throughout the year if there is additional lighting in autumn and winter. Usually amateur flower growers sow pelargonium from November to April. 
It is better to sow pelargonium in February-March (the duration of daylight hours increases by the time of germination and the beginning of seedling growth). 
The soil for sowing pelargonium should be loose, moisture- and air-permeable. To prepare the substrate, you can use high-moor peat, perlite, leafy and humus soil, sand. For sowing pelargonium seeds, experts recommend the following substrate composition: sod land, sand and peat in a ratio of 2:1:1. Before sowing, it is advisable to disinfect the substrate (you can spill it with a pink solution of potassium permanganate, a solution of the biofungicide "Fitosporin-M"), because pelargonium seedlings are susceptible to the disease "black leg". 
To accelerate the germination of collected pelargonium seeds, experienced flower growers carry out their scarification (rub them with fine-grained sandpaper to remove the covering scales and slightly break the covering shell). Seeds prepared for planting germinate in 7-10 days, and without pre-sowing treatment, their germination is not uniform and can take up to 3 months. Seeds that have already been cleaned of the covering scales are sold, they germinate in 2-3 weeks.
Pelargonium F1 hybrids grown from seeds can only be propagated vegetatively in the future, because the seeds obtained from them will give segregation in subsequent generations (plants grown from them will not be similar to the parent plants). Seeds formed on varietal pelargoniums under favorable growth conditions as a result of artificial pollination, pollination by insects or self-pollination can be used for sowing. They are harvested from plants in summer or early autumn, after browning of the seed boxes.
Pelargonium seeds are sown in boxes and bowls filled with moist substrate, sprinkled with a thin layer of substrate or sand 2-5 mm thick, sprayed on top after sowing and covered with a bowl of glass. It is required to ventilate the seedlings daily by lifting the glass and wiping it from condensation. 
To germinate pelargonium seeds, it is required to maintain a temperature of +18+22°С and regularly moisten the drying substrate. The bowl with the emerged seedlings is placed in a bright place; with sufficient lighting, the seedlings grow strong and stocky, develop quickly.
After germination, it is important to maintain moderate soil moisture and prevent it from drying out, protect seedlings from direct sunlight, carefully loosen the soil and ventilate the seedlings.
After 1-1.5 months, when the plants form 2-3 true leaves, pelargonium seedlings are picked into pots, while it is important to plant the plants at the same depth at which they grew earlier. The optimum growth temperature is +16+20°С.
For better bushiness, pelargonium seedlings are pinched above the 5-6th leaf. An abundance of light and fresh air contributes to good growth and constant flowering of pelargoniums.