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When is a geranium not a geranium? Almost always, it seems.

We’re seeing designer geraniums everywhere lately. And get this, most of the flowers we’re seeing aren’t really — from a scientific name point of view — geraniums. They are pelargoniums.

Why they confuse us like this, I do not know. We’re apparently calling them the wrong name, buying them like there’s no tomorrow, and they’re coming out with even more colors of these, these, pelargoniums.

Name aside, here’s what I love about designer geraniums: It’s really hard to kill them. These plants put up with almost anything we dish out and keep on blooming. Let’s acknowledge that this is a very good thing.

Doug Hart of Harts Nursery, which has multiple locations in Oregon, says, “These geraniums are full of horsepower, like flowers on steroids, designed to keep pushing flowers up even for gardeners with brown thumbs.”

If that describes you, then march your bad self and that brown thumb down to buy some of these designer geraniums. Yes, I’ll leave you a few ... I’ve already been through the selections at Kmart, Bi-Mart, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid near me. See why I’m so busy? I went a little pelar-gonzo this year.

Even those fancy-pants plant people down the street will admire your summer display. And here’s the greatest part: I’d be willing to bet that these designer geraniums are, as the experts say: “drought-tolerant.” They don’t seem to need all that much water to survive.

Here’s a testimonial that proves the survivability of the designer geranium. The man down the street planted some along the foundation of his house at this time last year, and they are still going strong! They’re supposed to die at first frost. Yes, we had a mild winter. But for heaven’s sake, it did freeze a couple of times. And I distinctly remember a snowflake or two. No doubt the warmth of his house foundation helped a lot, but still ...

Anyway, the strength and the copious new colors are the reason this reliable standard draws my attention again this year. I saw a bunch of new designer geraniums for the first time on a recent trip to Southern California, where big research companies were unfurling their new flower collections.

If you can choose among all the colors, you are way ahead of me. Gone are the days of just red or white geraniums. Choose from hot pink, grape, lilac chiffon, white fire (it has a red center) or salmon. And just to make it more difficult to make up your mind, you find not one but six colors of red: dark red, bright red, red, bright scarlet, scarlet and cherry. And they’ve got even more new colors planned for release next year. Stop the madness.

Here’s my design tip on designer geraniums. Mass one color together in a big grouping for a big punch. Or, if you can’t decide on just one color, cram all of the colors together. Any combination will look great.

Now, have at it. If you can grow mold in your refrigerator, you can grow these geraniums, er, pelargoniums.