When I buy a geranium how can I tell if it is from seedlings or a cutting?

Question

How can I tell if it is an annual or a perennial geranium?

Answer 1

You can't. Unless you have some way of determining the genetic provenance there is no difference in plants growth rate or form to tell a plant grown from tissue culture, a cutting, or a seedling.
Many plants clone themselves naturally to reproduce. They send a small shoot-like structure called a runner, along the soil. The runner grows into a new separate plant, which is genetically identical to the original plant - a clone. In taking cuttings we make use of this ability of a plant to regenerate itself. Vegetative propagation or cloning just produces more plants with specific qualities, like height, flower colour and quality than seed propagation since it is less likely to show variation.
Even if you had the parent plant you might not see much difference from them to their offspring. Most garden cultivars have been selected for their traits to breed true. Especially a plant like a bedding geranium. Only when hybridizing between species do you find easily traceable traits diverging between the first or F1 generation and the seed's haploid donors.

The perennial cranesbill (Geranium) vs. the annual we commonly call geranium (Pelargonium or Pellies) belong to two genera.
The first South African Pelargonium seed capsules were misidentified as geranium as a consequence they were called South African geraniums.

Cranesbills usually like moist cool or temperate not Mediterranean climates. This result is they have very different uses and culture requirements.


Geraniums have five equal-sized petals. Pelargoniums have two upper and three lower petals. However there are many double pelargoniums cultivars with more than five petals.

Annual geraniums are Pelargoniums x hortorum.
Cranesbills are