With over 200 species the genus Geranium has a lot to offer. One of my favorites is ‘Lancastriense’ with its diminutive mound of foliage and delicate pink flowers. Standing at 8” tall it is a real looker at the front of the border in my secret garden where I can fully appreciate the shape of its dissected leaves and the crimson veins in its petals. It blooms for several weeks in spring near pink Fringed Bleeding Heart (Dicentra exima) and Lady’s mantle (Alchemillia molllis) with its gray-green foliage and yellow-green flowers. It has withstood abuse from other more vigorous plants but comes through like a trooper and even graces the garden with crimson-red foliage in the fall.
Type: Perennial.
Bloom: Light pink with crimson veins in late spring; dissected foliage that turns red in the fall.
Size: 8” H x 6” W.
Light: Sun to part sun, part shade; protect from afternoon sun in the South.
Soil: Average to fertile moist but well drained; acidic.
Fertilizer: Use organic mulch and no further fertilizer is necessary.
Hardiness: Zones 4-8.
Care: Can be cut back hard after flowering and it will form a new mound of foliage and probably even rebloom.
Pests and Diseases: None of significance.
Propagation: Spreads naturally but may be divided in fall or spring.
Companion plants: Lady’s mantle, Fringed Bleeding Heart, Tiarella.
Comments: Deer resistant; good as an edger.
Karen Meyers