SUBTLE BEAUTY: Like good friends, hardy geraniums have surprising depth and are unfailingly amiable

摘要

My long love affair with hardy geraniums began when we bought our home in St. Paul 41 years ago. I inherited a run-down garden with a perky pink-flowered perennial I couldn't identify. It turned out to be big-root geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum 'Ingwersen's Variety')—one of my favorite plants—and its progeny rule in my woodland garden. My collection now includes 17 species and cultivars, ranging from diminutive pink 'Ballerina' (G. dnereuni) to 14-inch white 'Album' (G. sanguineum) to 36-inch blue'Brookside' (G. pratense x G. clarkei 'Kashmir Purple'). In June, I added two more hybrids that bloomed nonstop until October, lavender-blue 'Rozanne' USPP 12175 (G. himalayense x G. wallichi-anum 'Buxton's Variety') and bright pink-and-white 'Orkney Cherry' USPP 18,263 (G. x. oxonianum x G. x antipodeum).