My mother had a few geraniums by the back door that struggled each year to bloom and failed, may be a sprinkle of red and pink in the early season before giving up altogether.
The word "failed" makes me confused. I thought mistakenly that the mother tries to make flowers to bloom but impossible ), so I am surprised why flower colors appear in the latter.
@Spira: I understood that but still confused and totally clear after your explanations. Previously, I thought differently: "failed" means flowers could not bloom (no matter how much the mother tried), so it's not reasonable to have flower color in the latter )
The mother had geraniums by the door. These geraniums had a few flowers (red and pink) at first but then stopped having flowers (failed). I have the same problems with geraniums, they don't need that much water but they do need the old flower heads removing, or dead heading. If they don't get this they stop flowering and as the original quotation says "give up altogether".