Blue Hardy Geranium

Hardy Geranium
Geranium pratense 'Midnight Reiter'
(jer-AY-nee-um) (pray-TEN-see)
Synonyms: Meadow Cranesbill

This flower has been a welcome addition to the garden this year. Its dwarf habit, dark foliage and brilliant blue flowers are a nice package. I have been falling in love with all the Hardy Geraniums we have been planting. Any blue flower is usually okay with me and this one is a striking shade of blue.

Hardy Geraniums are easy to grow and will even tolerate some shade. The one thing I have learned about them is they like good drainage in the winter (like Asters). Other than that they are a care free and floriferous perennial. While none of the Hardy Geraniums get really big (they like to spread more) 'Midnight Reiter' seems to like to stay small only getting up to 8 inches tall. It does stick out in the border with the purple foliage and blue flowers.

Geranium 'Stephanie'

Geranium 'Stephanie'

This is another beautiful hybrid perennial Geranium. It was developed from a seedling at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland and is a distinct cross between Geranium peloponnesiacum and G. renardii. They like moist sites and full sum but I have grown them in less than ideal conditions and been happy with them. This cultivar is very floriferous and can rebloom later in the season with a little light shearing after the first wave of flowers.

I know last Sunday I said I was going to work this Sunday but oh well. I have a job I will be finishing off today which is always a plus. I have a couple of appointments, also. The planting job went well on Saturday and we got everything in. I need a couple of more trees and some mulch and that job will be finished up too.


It was funny to see this daisy in a sea of Alyssum. I wish I had a wider angle to show the 100's of flats of Alyssum.

'Jolly Bee' Hardy Geranium

Cranesbill
Geranium 'Jolly Bee'
(jer-AY-nee-um)
Synonyms: Hardy Geranium

Seems weird not to be posting some rose pictures. I was going to start calling this blog Digital Rose Pictures.com for awhile but now it is back to the regularly scheduled content. Seriously, the Rose Festival was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun and a learning experience for me. I still have a few rose pictures left over that I will probably be posting one at a time over the next few weeks.

I am not sure where I took the picture of today’s flower. I do know it was a couple of weeks ago, so it really can bloom May to frost. I haven’t grown this particular cultivar before but do have several other cultivars of Hardy Geranium and love them. It is a low growing, no fuss perennial that can become almost like a groundcover if it is happy and has the right conditions. Some of those conditions are a rich, moist organic soil with good drainage. It will adapt to a lot of different areas including sandy, dry and normal soils. I grow this plant in Connecticut in both partial shade (almost full shade) and full sun. Southern gardeners may want to provide a bit of afternoon protection. This cultivar is considered to be one of the largest flowered and most heat tolerant of its class. The flowers are fragrant but I have never smelled them, that is something I will have to try. The flowers get different shadings of blue through violet as you can see from this picture. It makes it a little more interesting.

Photo showing the different colored flowers of Hardy Geranium 'Jolly Bee'.

If my clumps start to look a little ratty I shear them down to promote bushy growth and a second wave of flowering. Another nice thing about these plants is the wonderful fall colors the deeply cut foliage gets, a good mixture of orange, red and yellow. Good news is the deer don’t really bother this plant. So in general I would recommend this plant for mass planting, mixed borders and it makes a great edger. Even if you don’t like Geraniums give it a try, as it is very different from the traditional flower.

I am not sure what I am going to do today. It was suppose to be real windy here but the morning has revealed a clam day, which makes it much easier to get some flower shots. The foliage isn’t very good so far around here as our mini-drought has kind of washed it out. Speaking of drought I guess it is over as we had 5.75 inches (!) of rain in about 3 hours the other night. It rained about as hard as I have ever seen it here. It was localized and the estate got hit hard with some flooding and erosion. I guess I know what I will doing for the first part of next week.