Growing Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant): A Complete Profile

By Growing Home Greens Team · August 20, 2026

This is a scented geranium marketed as a mosquito plant. The scent is lovely. The mosquito claim does not survive contact with the evidence.

What the research found

In 1996 a team at the University of Guelph tested exactly this plant, sold under the name citrosa, in a field evaluation against Aedes mosquitoes. They found no significant difference in bites between people sitting beside the plants and people who were not. They also recorded mosquitoes landing and resting on the plants themselves.

Crushed leaves rubbed on skin do have some brief effect, on the order of a fraction of what DEET achieves. A plant sitting in a pot on the patio has none. If mosquitoes are the problem you are solving, this is not the solution, and no amount of them in containers will change that.

Worth growing anyway, for the foliage

Set the marketing aside and it is a good container plant: deeply cut lacy leaves that release a sharp citrus scent when you brush past, two to three feet tall and about as wide, happy in full sun or part shade, and rarely troubled by pests. It is drought tolerant once established and it takes neglect well.

Tender, and sold as a plant

It is a tender perennial hardy only in zones 9 to 11, so nearly everyone grows it as an annual or overwinters it indoors on a bright windowsill. The named clone does not come true from seed, so it is sold as a rooted plant rather than in packets, and we have marked it transplant-only for that reason.

Source: Matsuda, Surgeoner, Heal, Tucker and Maciarello, Essential oil analysis and field evaluation of the citrosa plant as a repellent against populations of Aedes mosquitoes, Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 12(1):69-74, 1996.

Companion planting guide for Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant) · Find your planting dates

Typically viable in USDA zones 4-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.

Method: Buy as a start: Buy as a nursery start and transplant outside. Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant) is slow or unreliable from seed, so most gardeners skip seed-starting it entirely.

See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →

How many Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant) plants fit per square foot?

Spacing: about 4 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-3 ft.

Where to buy citronella plant starts

Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant) is almost always bought as a nursery start rather than seeded. Check a local nursery or garden center; we haven't vetted online start/plant suppliers yet.

See it growing

Search YouTube for "growing citronella plant (mosquito plant)" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)

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Growing Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant): The scented geranium sold as a mosquito repellent, and the field trial that found it does not repel mosquitoes.

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