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.
