Geraniums - AGAIN!

Roll on summer. All of mine are still under the white stuff.

Thanks Barbara - lovely and cheerful

You have some smashing ones there I only have one of them thats the sanguineum mine is purple .I love the hardy geraniums and could not pick a favourite although I am looking forward to seeing my phaeums and Amy Doncaster.One of my rambler and scramblers is Westray it makes its way through the honeysuckle.

Loved the blog Barbara, and some great combos there...love hardy geraniums almost as much as conifers ..:0)))

very colourfull barbara, i love to see plants mingle, rather than regimental, lovely pics :o))

Love the mingles.

Great blog loved it

Fab, geraniums are one of my all time favourite plants. Do you have the Armenian, G.psilostemon (?), its huge and works well at the back of a border. My bees love G. Johnsons Blue. I divided a huge clump to make about 40 small plants that I will plant around their hive in the spring..if the white stuff ever goes.

Nice to be reminded of what's to come after 'the white stuff ' I for one am looking forward to seeing another colour ... Thanks Barbara :o)

Treeman I have G.psilostemon Bressingham Flair it is big I have it beside my Buddleja

Lovely blog Spritz....one of these days everyone will be "educated" in the difference between "Geraniums" and "Pelargoniums".......

It`s lovely to see your Summer flowers Spritz, I`ve almost forgotten what mine looked like. I do have a hardy geranaium but when I bought it there was nothing to say which variety it was. I love the dianthus in 11, a bit similar to my `Alan Titchmarsh`.

Sandra x

enjoyed your pics spritz,i like mingle 7 & 11 love all the colours...:o)

Yes, Treeman - G. psilostemon x 2! I'm hoping that they'll flower a bit more this year - I moved one into a more shady area to see if that would help.

I've also planted 'Ann Folkard' which should be a proper 'mingler', I hope!

Glad you all enjoyed a bit of summer - we need some, don't we.

That was a lovely cheerful blog :o) It was such a relief from this depressing weather. I like the way you get things to mingle. There are so many geraniums to be had you just have to have more don't you. Well I do anyway. It's nice they seed themselves around aswell. I hope mine will mingle as well as yours next year. I hope you're you going to give us some more snow-less blogs ;o)

Definitely a mingle gardener here and I do love to get extra plants for nothing, if I don`t need them I can usually find a home for them in somebody elses garden........Nice to see a bit of colour Spritz..........

Oh That was so enjoyable Spritz made me forget how snowy it is outside roll on spring lovely pics, dont think my plants would even match yours,Lol have lot of learning to do....:~))))

Great blog Spritz....you've some stunning Geraniums there...I especially love "Roseanne".....just beautiful!

Sorry Spritz meant to say "would never match yours"...Lol :~)))

Spritzhenry Anne Folkard is a lovely mingler she also has a gorgeous black centre and is another one of my favourites.

Thanks Spritz for bringing a little bit of sunshine back into or wintry lives......

Thanks Spritz good to see pics of one of my favourite plants, especially love your mingles, all of them, does seem a long time ago does it not?

I do like the hardy geraniums too and have several the same as yours. Hopefully this coming year they will have spread and I will have a few more plants. Lovely to see the colourful photos too.

Ah, Barbara, thank you - just what the doctor ordered. :-))

lovely to see pictures of flowers, thanks Barbara, some of my favourite plants, I wouldn't be without geraniums in the garden

Well, I certainly couldn't, as you can see!

Thanks, all - I'm glad it helped a bit in this white world. Well - ours is even whiter today, after more heavy falls - maybe you have a thaw?

Yes a thaw ! AND a burst pipe so my fuchsias are drowning. Well it's a change from being frozen solid !
:o(((((((((

Oh no, Hywel - fuchsias first - man the lifeboats! Poor things and poor you. Has your snow all gone, then? Can you handle the burst pipe situation or does this mean getting a plumber in?

There is about another 2 inches of snow aswell as the pipe. I have called a plumber but I have turned the stop tap off for now anyway. I used to be ably to deal with pipes myself if not too complicated, but not now. I have just written a ranty blog lol. I had to get it off my chest.

I know - I read it! I do feel for you....you know that. Keep calm if you can - and tty to save your fuchsias.

The water can't get out because of a low wall and step down. I have to wade through it to get at the fuchsias. My wellies are in the shed and I can't get in there without shovelling the snow out of the way. My spade is in the shed aswell so I am stuck. I have brought some fuchsias out and they are on an old table under my canopy. I will take them up to the bathroom now. I can't think of anywhere else. I hope you are allright

What a treat Spritz in these bitterly cold snowy days.You have so many lovely geraniums and such beautiful ones I am in awe. I love them so much, all of them. They are my favourite flower for many reasons, and your Mingling just proves how they are the ideal plant in every way.
You are lucky to have managed to acquire so many lovely varieties. Whenever I have gone to a G.C. there are so few choices available. I go along with my list and come to a full stop when I find they have maybe 3, and a huge amount of nothing but those three. Your's must have taken some tracking down.
A lovely cheerful blog, thank you Spritz.

Mad I manage to get most of my hardy geraniums localy either at Morrisons supermarket or in my indoor market in Newcastle.They both stock good different varieties Morrison are sold as alpines or rock garden and need a nice summer in the garden to grow on ,In the market there are two local stalls one of them sells lovely medium size potsof geraniums they restock every Monday.There is also a market garden locally that specialises in hardy geraniums.

Lovely blog Spritz. It did warm me up a bit thinking about summer. We are in the middle of an ice age just now, no more snow but the school is closed again due to the ice. I got all the way down there to find a note pinned to the gate saying it was to dangerous to drive! That left us with the task of getting back up the hill, with cars coming down sideways, backwards and any other way you can imagine. The bus driver had the right idea, he turned around at the top of the hill and went back to the depot!

You're very lucky Mavis! I look at every possible place I go to for new ones - and I ordered a couple by mail order eventually. I don't get the plug-plants on offer, though - I don't find that they thrive. I've been given some by a kind GOY-er as well, and I'm waiting to send her some in exchange when the weather improves.

Mad - would you like some seeds? Just PM me if you would.

Hi Ian. That really was a pain for you. I'm sorry that you haven't begin to thaw out yet. You obviously got home safely - one blessing!

You'll have to ring them first tomorrow, rather than setting out - that is if there's anyone there to answer the phone!

Hywel - is there a helpful neighbour who would lend you some wellies - or even come and help in this situation? It really is a catch-22! You just need your own wellies and a spade to get sorted as far as you can, after all. Good luck. I hope someone is around who can help.

I remember you having fuchsias all round your house last winter - I guess it'll be like that again - but needs must.

Thankyou for a lovely cheerful blog ;o)))

You're welcome, Carol. :-))) xx

Spritzhenry I am always on the look out for more .The market garden is great you walk through the polytunnels to see the plants.He has lots of different ones his prices are good as well. I have to ask my ex husband to take me as I dont have any transport but he does not mind.

Sounds a great place! I'd be like a child in a sweet shop. LOL.

lovely pics.........more snow here today........

Lovely look back at Summer prompting that longing for the next one. What a superb collection you have Barbara!!
More snow here, too, today but it is too warm (if that's the right word. Lol) for it to settle. The thaw seems set now - famous last words? :-))

Thanks Holly, and Ponty -- we have a weird misty murky stuff hanging around above the white ground - can't work out what it is, though, as I'm still stuck indoors with painful sinuses. Moan, moan!

I have some in the house now and some still out but on shelves. I will have to get a good place sorted out for them for next winter, but last summer I couldn't really concentrate on the garden ... I will have more time now.

So have you rescued them all, Hywel? I do hope so. You had a horrible day, all in all. :-(((

You'll want to get the garden sorted as soon as you can. I wish I knew when that will be!!

I'm sorry to have gone away from the subject of your geraniums. I think my fuchsias will be all right. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I just had a fright and panicked lol. I get like that. Aswell as that I had to pay £217.00 for a new motor for my windscreen wipers :o)) Well I might as well smile about it I suppose.
I have seen a lovely blue geranium with a white centre in a gardencentre near here. I was going to buy it last year but I think I will this year. I can't remember it's name but will when I see it I think. I hope it mingles in my garden

The list grows and grows! Will you please stop showing me plants I covet, Spritz! I've already put down 'Rozanne' as an essential and feel the need to add a couple more.
Hywel, it sounds like Wallichianum or 'Rozanne'. Glad your fuchsia news is sounding more hopeful.

Or 'Jolly Bee'...very similar to 'Rozanne'. I'm pleased about your fuchsias, Hywel! I'd have felt the same in that nasty situation.

Sorry, Wagger. I'll try to post ugly horrible plants from now on. ;-)

Thank you, Spritz. My purse will appreciate it! lol

Mine won't - I shall have to track some ugly plants down, now - just to show you! (Of course, once I've taken their photo, they'll be dug straight out and whooshed into the compost bin!) LOL.

Thanks, M. I'm so glad that you enjoy them. It makes creating them worth while when members say that.

I'd love to see some of your flowers - yes please! :-))))

I have a couple of geranium books which might help us, too.

finally got blogs again Yippee. and what a lovely one this is. I really like the white phaeum.

Errrr....did you mean the pratense, Sbg? 'Double Jewel'? Unfortunately, it's a sterile one. I'll have to learn how to propagate those!

Glad you've got everything back now. That was very odd - I wonder if anyone else was affected?

A lovely blog Spritz; it reminded me to dig out my book of hardy geraniums byTrevor Bath and Joy Jones, and to think of the summer to come.

thanks that cheered me up too. i have put in some new ones in last autumn, so i am looking forward to seeing what they look like this year. any tips about growing from saved seed would be helpful, as i have not had any sucess. cheers lemondog

Thanks Robert - I have that book as well as the Wisley one, and treated myself to a new one called 'Gardening with Hardy Geraniums' recently, as it talks about the newer cultivars too.

Lemondog - I started to grow from seed last year, and find that the seeds don't like being covered except by a little vermiculite. Some bottom heat helps, but isn't essential. Do please send me a PM if I can help any further. :-))

I must be having a brain storm..... you are right i did mean pratenses. obviously my brain is getting too much chilling. :o)

Poor thing - have you still got 'it' up there? :-(((

Just, but the wind and rain feels even colder :o((
posted a blog with piccies of the white stuff. but also my lovely flowers that hubby got me. so if you dont want to see the white scroll to the botom for the red :o)

Too late! I've read it and commented! LOL.

Spritzhenery I was going to ask if you could recommend a geranium book for me .The three you have mentioned were some that I have looked at are they all good ? or is one better than the others ,Thanks

I'll PM you. :-)

Another great & interesting blog, Spritzhenry! I like the Geraniums but have never grown them. Down beside the river here there are plenty of them growing wild. They look fabulous every year & they are often cut back when gardeners cut the grass. Yet they spring back into life.

I would imagine that they're G. pratense, are they? That must be a sight to see!

Love the blog Spritz but there again I love Geraniums as you know. I am having to start from scratch again with them so roll on the Gardening club sales as you can generally find plenty of variety there. Rozanne with the Coreopsis is unusual but striking :~)))

Hope you find some good ones! :-))

I love geraniums too always trying to get rick to grow them on the nursery but of course when you have them in 1 litre pots they can go straggly as they are about to flower but I keep winning a bit
I have planted some for in between my heucheras in the garden they look lovely with them Mainly jolly bee as we had a lot of them to spare at one point lol (its alright for you guys you get to choose what you plant I have to wait for a glut lol)
We bought some (well I did) geranium Dragons Heart with kind permission from 'The Fantastic Mr Fox' to see if they would grow in some very poor soil at the side of the wall around the garden and the leylandii hedge .
idea being that they would ramble through the hedge a bit and give some flowers in summer.
Dont know if it will work yet as plants still in pots on nursery!!!!!.... hopefully made it through the winter.
We have Alice Hoffman doing the same in a rather nice shady spot by large christmas tree in the garden (not sure what variety rick isnt here to ask, his thing not mine)

Good books
best one for me is gardeners guide to growing Hardy Geraniums by Trevor Bath and Joy Jones available from amazon for £5.99 I think that is paper back but you can get it in hard back which is better dont know how much.
lots of colour pictures and non 'jargoned' to death (a vickyisum) easy for all but full of good info. (you can get other plants in these books too . Like there one on penstemon etc.all witten by experts)
also quick guide is Rhs wisley hand book to hardy Geranuims on amazon £5.80

Yes - agree, I have both of those, and another lovely one by Birgitte Husted Bendtsen called 'Gardening with Hardy Geraniums' which has newer cultivars in. Lots of good photos!

Yes that is a good one I have that one too
I forgot that one.

It was recommended somewhere - so I ordered it from Amazon. It does live up to its reputation, doesn't it! I can sit and read it like a novel. :-)))

Lovely blog Spritz, I love Ann Folkard and may try to split her this year. I find Rozanne ( what a flowerer ) easy to split and now have 4 plants from my original. Psilostemon self seeds everywhere here, but is no problem to remove. These plants give so much for such little care. Having read all the comments too, I now find I may have to buy some more books:-( I bought a bookcase on ebay for gardening books (flat pack) for the little bedroom I converted to my 'office' ie where I keep the computor. Problem is There are 10 million fittings(all counted and correct) and it says it will take 1 hour with 2 people. Just looking at the diagrams( no words) I'm defeated, and I can normally cope with Ikea stuff. So books still all over the place. Have you a recommendation for a lovely long flowering pink geranium, larger flowered than wargraves? There may be one in your new book???

yes its really good
If I come across one bornagain I willl post it:)

Take a look at 'Pink Penny' in my blog - she's wonderful! There's also a Buxton that's a pink version - I'll have to check the exact name. Could be called 'Buxton's Pink'.....??

Anyone seen sanguineum elke? or cantabrigiense berggarten?

I think I have sanguinium elke.

Claridge Druce is very strong and easy to split.

as far as minglers are concerned, you cant beat ger. procurrens with its little blackcurrant coloured flowers - a late flowerer.

I

sorry dont know what happened then!

Thanks for a great blog Sprtiz, to cheer us all up!

I don't know that one! Oh dear - another for the wish-list.

You're welcome. R'smum.

Ba - I've seen Elke in my book, and decided not to get it as I have lots of G. sanguineum already. The only difference is a slight white edge on the petals.

Have you seen the cantab berggarten, it's quite new and looks really pink? I have thought of ordering one, but it would be nice if anyone had seen it in the flesh so to speak. I'm still looking for the 'buxtons'. I spent hours last night looking through geranium nursery pics and descriptions and making notes. But it's not the same as knowing someone who's actually seen them. Perhaps I should wait for Malvern, there's sure to be a specialist there isn't there? I've never been to the plant show only the County one:-)

They won't be in flower then....but there might well be a geranium specialist, as you say. I'll try to find the reference to it - it might have been in one of my books.

I haven't seen the Berggarten, but then I have two cantabs so I wouldn't really want another one.

I'd watch out for procurrens, Spritz - Low growing and very rampant. This plant will root at every node that reaches the ground. There's mingling and 'mingling'.

I have my books to hand - I'll take a look. Thanks for the warning!

Wow! It took me ages to read all this! After drooling over your mingling pix, Spritz, I'm converted! I wouldn't have asked yesterday's question if I had looked at this first!
Penny

Don't worry - nobody minds answering questions, Penny. Glad you enjoyed it. :-)

Spritz, if I can get to your open day this year I will bring you some G. Procurrens - the greatest mingler of all, I suggest!

Problem is, there is a new grandchild due that week, so we'll have to see!

OOOOHH!!! How exciting, R'smum...If you are able to get here, you'll be doubly welcome!

I have just come accross this blog on the 'Hardy Geraniums' page... you have such a lovely garden and have given me some ideas (I have the urge for more of them... and am once again avoiding the revision!) At the moment I've only got lots of Wargrave pink, an Amy Doncaster, a ginormous thing donated from a neighbour (can't wait for it to flower!) and a splishsplash that i got bare root from Grainger market.... I'm wondering if it was one of the same plant stalls as Mavisc52 was talking about!

How do you get them to mingle so naturally? When I put plants together they just seem to stay separate :(

Thanks for such a lovely blog :) and sorry for bringing it up again after so long!

How nice that you did, Jennyfer. When I want to see some mingling, I choose which Geranium has the right 'habit' and plant it close up to the new friend. It has its dangers - you have to be sure that the plants are equally vigorous, or one can swamp the other.

The ones you have are all upright in habit, so they won't mingle.

Oh, thankyou :) I will have a look for some of the ones you mentioned and have a go... I even have some Erigeron Karvinskianus seedlings (if they're still alive when I get back), so might try and plant them with stuff for next year :)

Those are lovely for softening edges. I wouldn't be without them! :-)))

hehe, I saw a picture of them and fell in love a little bit, so its nice to hear from someone who grows them that they are good :)) I'm all excited now... next year suddenly seems like a lifetime away!

They seed themselves - once you've got them, you should have them every year. :-)

I'll post a photo of my top border, where you'll see them growing in the drystone retaining wall.

:D can't wait! I've just seen the picture... now even more excited than ever :P I have a feeling I'll end up sticking them here, there and everywhere... like a child with acorns again (.. mum got a few suprises after that). The 'habits' of plants isn't something I'd given much thought to before, so I'm glad you brought it to my attention :) Hopefully it'll help me to soften things up a bit :]

I have them at the edge of the front path, too. It's too late tonight, but tomorrow I'll take (or find!) a photo so you can see the effect. I call it my 'signature' plant, because it's just everywhere in the garden. I encourage it...except when it insists on seeding itself in the cobbles of the steps. :-/

That would be lovely :) Thankyou for all the help and pictures!! and wow... i see what you mean about the self-sowing... it must be lovely to find it turning up in unexpected places... but i suppose there IS a limit :P

I've posted the new photo now. :-)

Oh Barbara...another blog that is so full of good info and the comments....wow, so many! It seems the hardy geraniums are a very popular addition to most gardens.

Looking at your photos I'm pretty sure I have some hardy geraniums in the garden already but the idea of mingling them really appeals...I'll be experimenting with that too. I like the idea that a lot of them self-seed (freebies too if they do that) so even better :)

Thanks for your two excellent blogs about these lovely plants.

Hallo - you found yourself here, did you? As I said on 't'other blog, you're welcome. If I can help in any way, please do ask. :-)

Thank you Barbara...very kind :)

:-)

Hi Spritz..you are right re blue skies...if you look at my pic again you'll find further info about my new geranium which will make you green with envy;-)

Oh no it won't. Go and see for yourself, Ba! ;-D)

I have just come across this while googling my grandfather - Bill Wallis. It is lovely to see the geranium names after him that our family love growing in other peoples gardens.

Hallo Claire - welcome to GoY! I think 'Bill' has to be one of my favourite Geraniums - and I'm a 'Geranioholic'! lol. How interesting that he's named after your grandfather! Thanks for joining us and telling us that. Tell us more, please. :-))

I bet you may have a little seedling that you no longer require Spritz? I know of a very good home for it:-)
Welcome to GOY Claireb1..what a wonderful heritage! Your Grandfathers name will be remembered as long as there are gardeners:-)

I may do when 'Bill' has stopped for the year. It's then that I look out for his babies. Ask me again later, Ba. ;-)

Will do Spritz:-)

:-)

I have some of my own little bill wallis seedlings now :) i bought him and some other geranium seeds a few months back and now i've got dozens of little (slightly leggy) plants growing away in my greenhouse :)

Isn't he generous, Jennyfer! :-))

Yes, I'm v. excited about him :), I think I only have four of him, and the rest are different ones.... and my baby erigeron karvinskianus' have buds on them!!

That's good - you'll really enjoy having them around. :-)))

Hope so :) Thanks for all your advice regarding them :)

You're welcome. :-))