They’re pink with purple veins and delft blue dipped in white. They’re magenta with black-eyes, too. They take hot sun and dappled shade, start blooming in April, and have a mind to keep going through fall.
Who are these frothy confections of open-faced flowers that sleep through winter and burst into spring? That defy the confines of windowsills and prefer mixed flower borders where they can scramble, mound and weave?
They’re hardy geraniums, of course. You’d be hard pressed to come up with another garden plant with these innumerable attributes.
So if those are geraniums, what in the name of the Great Goddess Flora are these?
Ah. Those are Pelargonium, mistakenly called annual geraniums. It’s a mistake that dates back to 1753 so not to worry, you are hardly alone.
What awaits you now is a genus of subtle and sublime plants that has been sadly reduced in the trade to just a few popular varieties (‘Rozanne’ and ‘Johnson’s Blue’ leap to mind). Today’s walk-in nurseries offer only the slimmest selection (remember when we could walk into nurseries?), unless you’re among the giddy geeks familiar with the best geranium nursery on the West Coast: Geraniaceae.
Introducing the owner of that Marin County nursery, Robin Parer, one of the world’s leading experts on Geranium, Pelargonium and Erodium (just wait till you meet those little erodiums). She’s also the author of The Plant Lover’s Guide to Hardy Geraniums (Timber Press, 2016). Robin’s hour-long Zoom presentation will be a romp through her top choices for coastal gardens, featuring dozens of gorgeous flowers you’ve likely never seen in the trade, many of which Robin has available.
As a gift to those who register for our class, Robin will be offering a 20% discount on mail orders of six plants or more. Six is easy. Our Wonder Garden curator stopped at 7. Then she put in a second order.
Robin Parer’s class is an online Zoom presentation. Registrants will receive their invites along with Robin’s featured plant list a few days before the event.
If you’d like to order The Plant Lover’s Guide to Hardy Geraniums, email your request to [email protected] or call them directly at 503-368-2665
Can’t wait to see you there!
Meet Some Gorgeous Geraniums
A Zoom presentation from Hoffman Center for the Arts
