Hardy Geraniums (Cranesbill)

I can't seem to get enough geraniums. They are such gracious, easy-going plants. I love the good foliage and the cheery little flowers. Plus also, the rabbits do not eat them!

• Geranium 'Brookside' - dainty blue flowers and very fine-textured, almost lacy foliage. An informal, loose habit that I'm not overly thrilled with, but might be just what is needed in the right spot.
• Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' - very lovely, large blue flowers, divided foliage, somewhat floppy, chaotic habit. I've heard this variety is finicky to grow and does not like hot summers. We'll see how well it returns for me. In its first year it bloomed profusely for a short period and looked briefly stunning, then became open and floppy. Regrew tighter foliage after a shearing, but did not rebloom. Some fall color, but foliage did not remain terribly attractive into fall.

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue'

• Geranium 'Nimbus' - highly cut, filigree foliage, small but abundant blue-purple flowers. Bloomed nearly continuously from summer to fall, and retained fresh foliage and attractive mounding habit throughout the season. (I did give it one "haircut" after the initial flush of summer bloom.) No appreciable fall color though. This one may currently be my favorite of the "blue" types of geraniums.

Geranium 'Nimbus' - still going strong in October

• Geranium ‘Orkney Cherry’ - dark brown-burgandy foliage and strikingly contrastive bright fuchsia flowers. This one was slow to establish at first - I almost thought it was a goner - but in its third put on a burst of speed. Very low growing, matlike habit.

Geranium 'Orkney Cherry' blooming in June

• Geranium ‘Patricia’ - a large plant related to geranium psilostemon, with blindingly bright magenta flowers on a very large mounded plant. The flowers have dark blackish centers. Attractive cutleaf foliage.

Geranium 'Patricia'

• Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle' - unusual large gray-green foliage which is really soft and felty to the touch. The summer flowers are lavender. Not the longest blooming geranium by far, but the foliage is just so awesome.Very disctinctive geranium.

Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle' - felty foliage

Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle' - lavender flowers in May

• Geranium endressii 'Wargrave Pink' - dark green foliage and light pink flowers, supposedly a nice companion to roses. 
  
• Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium) 'Bevan's Variety' - large foliage with deep pink flowers. Very shade and drought tolerant. Smells pleasantly of pine when the foliage is crushed. Nice fall color in shades of bronze and red. I love this type of geranium and have it planted everywhere under trees.  

Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium) 'Bevan's Variety'

  

• Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium) 'Ingwersen's Variety' - same as above but with very pale pink flowers.  

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Ingwersen's Variety' flowering in May

   

• Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium) 'Spessart' - same once again but with white flowers. The buds are pink, giving it an overall pink sort of glow.

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Spessart'

   

• Geranium maculatum - our native wild geranium. This is a lovely delicate plant with good foliage and very pale lavender pink flowers. It flowers for a brief period in early May, before the other geraniums start in. Will self-seed amiably. This is a woodland plant that appreciates partial shade.

Geranium maculatum

• Geranium monacense 'Claudine Dupont' - a shade loving geranium with smoky pink flowers  
• Geranium sanguineum (Bloody Cranesbill)  'New Hampshire Purple' - dark magenta pink flowers on a low mat of tight, dark green foliage. Like all Bloody Cranesbills, has very frost-resistant foliage that persists well into winter, and superb maroon-burgundy fall color.
• Geranium sanguineum (Bloody Cranesbill) ‘Shephard’s Warning’ - bright magenta pink flowers. Perhaps one of the shortest geraniums (mine is only about 2" high). The magenta is a bit strident - I'm having trouble finding a good spot for this guy. I personally prefer the somewhat larger size of 'New Hampshire Purple' - this one is just TOO diminutive for my space. Might be good in a trough or miniature garden though.

Geranium sanguineum 'Shepherd's Warning'

• Geranium sanguineum var. striatum (Bloody Cranesbill) - highly divided dark green foliage, very pale pink flowers with darker pink veins, on a low growing mound. Peak bloom is in May, with some scattered rebloom in late summer/fall. Great burgundy fall color that just lasts and lasts!

Geranium sanguineum var. striatum in May

Geranium sanguineum var. striatum - fall color and a bloom!

      

• Geranium wallichianum 'Havana Blues' - this is a relatively new cultivar, with very large blue flowers with white centers, similar to 'Rozanne' or 'Jolly Bee'. 'Havana Blues' is lauded as having a tidy, clump-forming habit (rather than an annoying sprawly one like the aforementioned,) but so far has been fairly sprawly in my garden. The flowers are quite attractive and bloom period is long. I think it's odd looking that the flowers are actually larger than the foliage on this plant. This plant did not survive the extremely cold winter of 2013-2014, and I'm not sure if it's worth replacing... It's not terribly photogenic, so I didn't manage to get a nice shot of it while it lasted. (It looked somewhat better than this in reality :-)

Geranium wallichianum 'Havana Blues'

• Geranium wlassovianum - a late summer/fall blooming geranium with many unusual features: large attractive foliage that emerges with burgundy-black coloration in spring, purple flowers in August/September, and superb fall color. Rarely grown for some reason, but this is one of my favorites. The one negative feature is that it goes dormant very early in fall, before we've even had a hard freeze. But it earns its place in the garden several times over the remainder of the year!

Geranium wlassovianum emerging in spring

  

Geranium wlassovianum blooming in late summer

                         

Geranium wlassovianum - Fall color

• Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ - nearly white shell pink flowers with darker pink stamens, lovely foliage and excellent medium-height mat-forming habit. Some fall color. A dependable performer - excellent for front of the border.

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo'

• Geranium x oxonianum 'Claridge Druce' - this one has tight-textured dark green foliage and small pink flowers, similar to its geranium endressii parent. A perfect companion for old garden roses.