Pelargonium tricolor buds are narrow, dark brown or green, hairy and point-tipped. They droop on hairy pedicels until they open when the flowers face outwards.
Apart from the large basal patches in blackish purple on the upper petal pair, there appear to be short stripes in the same dark purple at the bases of the three lower petals in picture.
Some pointed and toothed leaf parts are just discernible below the flowers (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Moriarty, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).