Rozanne blooms most of the summer for me but if you want a tidy small mounding version with pink flowers then you need to try Ballerina.

Cheers
Gabby

Oh, I'm sorry to read you chose Brookside - it's pretty, of course, but I have to whack back my Brooksides more severely after bloom than any other. Samobor also takes major cutting back, and that's more like a wildflower than you might like to try, but it's gorgeous when it blooms.

I like Carol, Elke, and Phillipe Vapelle for dainty mounds of flowers, and g. Magnificum is an astounding taller specimen. None of these blooms non-stop, but off and on throughout the season. I don't really cut any of these back.

For sheer flower power, I don't think anything beats Rozanne. But you have to be okay with its weaving through the garden; it's really like a groundcover.

Hope this helps!

Oops, forgot to mention that Johnson's Blue and Brookside are essentially the same plant for me, as far as care. Whack the JB back by one-third (or even one-half) each time it finishes blooming, and it'll come back to bloom again.

LOL, Deeje, I am also zone 3b MN, and have had Brookside in my garden for about 5 years now. Since it is the only geranium I have ever grown I have been perfectly happy to whack it down after it bloomed. And have always had more flowers on it later.

Now I feel like I want to go out and get some of the other ones you mentioned! My DH will have a fit, I promised no more new plants this year. I am WAAAAYYY over budget!

Jenny P

But, but... remind DH that you're not buying *one* plant, you're buying a boatload of divisions! Seriously, you give some of these two years in your garden, you can quarter them up and have 4x the flowers.

Geranium macrorrhizum, in particular, grows like gangbusters for me. I divided mine after the first year, and each of those after the second.

Hmmm I will have to try that one, I see from google that it has a pink flower. I definetly need to get more color in my garden, right now everything blooming is in the blue family!
Is there a common name I should look for? I am going to a little local nursery later this afternoon. She doesn't have much, but I like to stop in at least once a year and give her some support.
I planted 3 rozanne geraniums last year. One did not come back, one is really small, like maybe 3 leaves. The 3rd looks like it is doing better, but some asters I planted are behaving like thugs, and it is stuck in amongst them, so I can't really tell yet. I really need to thin those thugs! I have never grown them before, and didn't realize they would do SO well!

Jenny P

Yes, it's a quite vivid pink, almost tending toward magenta. I've only seen it labeled as "macrorrhizum" but your nursery person should be familiar with it; they're well-known for their scented foliage.

I've overwintered Rozanne successfully -- it's on its fourth season -- but it's not easy up here, is it? I mulch the bejeepers out of it, the way I do heuchera (not over the crown so much as around the sides).

It's the last thing I uncover in spring, and it's a little later to emerge than the other geraniums. But it quickly recovers and by the end of summer it's a big blowsy heap of flowers.

Thanks! I have added it to the growing list I keep in my purse!

Jenny P

enjoy, I live in the land where no cranesbill has ever dared to live before. Well, not quite. But almost. And I am telling you that Rozanne is the fulfillment of my geranium dreams. It really does bloom ALL summer. And yes, it spreads, but only about 2 feet wide for me, and I bet my growing season is alot longer than yours. I don't mind its spread because I have phlox divaricata planted right beside it. The phlox blooms before the cranesbill gets going in the spring and then the cranesbill completely covers the phlox for the hot summer, which is exactly what the phlox needs. Rozanne's foliage looks terrific all summer. The only tiny flaw I notice is that the bloom color loses some of the blue and becomes more lavender/pink as our intense heat comes. I've had it three years now. It's in full sun beds, and half shade beds. It does equally well everywhere. I remember reading in Fine Gardening magazine when rozanne was new, that the writer had dumped her Johnson's Blue in the compost heap and replaced it with Rozanne, something she had previously thought unthinkable. It has fully lived up to that recommendation in my garden.

I have a question for others who may respond to this. Have you divided Rozanne yet? I have divided it twice, both times in the spring, and both times it went into terrible shock, looking awfully droopy, but recovering in a few weeks. Both the mother plant and the babies were set back alot. I wonder if fall is a better time? I was reading a book this week that said you can reach down into a clump of cranesbills and just pull a small division out of the clump, and as long as you get a little root, it will take off without shocking the mother plant. Anyone ever try this?

I've had g. 'Jolly Bee' for 3 yrs now and it starts to bloom in mid June and continues until a hard frost. It's very similar to 'Rozanne'. I love the sprawling habit. We had a very long, cold snowy winter and it came thru just fine.

Kat

Try Wargrave's Pink, you can't stop it!

Marianne

Does Wargrave's Pink flop at all? Does Elke?

I don't have Wargrave's Pink, but Elke is one of the daintiest geraniums I have. She's petite too, so needs to be at the front of your bed.

I should've thought to link this photo of my garden, which shows Elke in bloom.

Start at the bronze sundial in the center of the photo. Just in front of it are some chives, and then to their right, the low mounding clear-pink geranium is Elke.

Her color's a bit off, though -- the pink is actually closer to the color of those peonies behind her.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:233676}}

Wow, that is gorgeous, deeje!
I've found jolly bee and rozanne both to bloom for a long, long time...I also hack back brookside and get a second healthy bloom.

G. 'Dilys' is a purply pink and blooms all summer--it's a real groundcover look, but the stems, though solid on the ground, don't root, and the footprint of the main plant is quite small. I like it very much. I think G. wlassovianum also blooms all summer-very purple--and the foliage has magnificent fall color.

For length of bloom, you can't beat Jolly Bee and Rozanne. I think with many of the hardy geraniums, the length of bloom and possible re-bloom may be related to your climate zone. Geraniums generally like moderate, mostly sunny weather, and that is where they will bloom the longest. Most of the ones we grow in North America don't like extreme humidity or heat. There are others that might, but I am not personally familiar with them, natives of the Mediteranean or other hot regions. Many geraniums belong to "families" and tend to behave alike, unless they are hybrids of two very different families. Macrorrhizum (e.g. 'Spessart' or 'Bevans') are evergreen groundcover plants, cantabrigiense (e.g. 'Westray' or 'Biokovo') are like a smaller version of macrorrhizum, without the scented leaves. However they still perform like a groundcover. 'Elke' is a sanguineum, and so forth. I just love hardy geraniums and there always seem to be new ones on the market to try.

Love, love, love Rozanne. Can't say enough about it! I've had about 10 plants for 3 years now and they do wander in my garden, but not invasively, they just meander around from their base. They can cover several feet in full sun and they do very well in part shade, too. They seem to be happy wherever I put them and just bloom their heads off until frost. Definately a winner.

My second year with Rozanne and it has lived up to its billing. Blooms from early-mid Spring till just about frost.

Bunnies totally ate my new Samobor down to the ground. I was really surprised as they don't eat most others.

No one talks much about splish splash - a friend gave me a division last year or the year before. It does not have a super long bloom season but it is adorable with some white flowers, some purple and some tie-dyed with both.

I bought a Brookside this year from a very reputable nursery, grew it in the pot for a month and then divided it to put in 2 huge pots with roses. The top growth had become so long and gangly, really unattractive that I thought it must be root bound. When I unpotted it, there were not many roots at all. I was very surprised. It put out all of this topgrowth but nothing in the root dept.

Brookside is all about location. I had mine growing between a pillar covered in Clematis and a purple leaved Cotinus with a white Clematis growing over it. Several other types of Geranium were growing around it.

Absolutely beautiful and I wouldn't have been without it.

But Rozanne is really a special plant. I even have one growing here in Santa Monica on my balcony in a pot.

My Rozannes bloom from late June through the fall without deadheading.

My "Alan Bloom" geraniums have been blooming heavily since mid-May. It is a relatively low growing, slowly spreading clump. I just cut it back and it will rebloom for me all summer--probably three flushes total--although not as heavily as the first flush.

redsox said, "No one talks much about splish splash - a friend gave me a division last year or the year before. It does not have a super long bloom season but it is adorable with some white flowers, some purple and some tie-dyed with both. "

For me, Splish Splash was a complete dud... twice It never really took off after a spring planting, flowered only very occasionally, and didn't over-winter either time. I love the flowers, but just can't grow it, even though I must have close to 20 other varieties of perennial geranium. Don't know if it's me or that cultivar, or some of each.

Hmmm I'm not sure why. Honestly, I am not a great grower and I don't have it in a great spot. Or maybe it does better in a warmer climate. Maybe third time is a charm??

I also have Splish Splash and for me it got about 2.5 ft tall bloom spikes on it this year, but the foliage stayed lower at about 1 ft and the leaves were the biggest of any geranium variety I own. It is done blooming now, so I cut down the taller blooming parts and it is back to a mound of leaves on long stems. It was really pretty in bloom, and even found it's way to mixing with a "Butterfly" Japanese Maple I have it planted under. The two colors on the geranium flower looked pretty against the soft pink/green/cream of the maple leaves.

I also have 3 Rozannes and LOVE them. One is in full sun and is smothered with flowers most all of the summer, and the other two are in part shade and I bought them specifically to be filler plants. They are performing just as beautifully as I hoped. One is planted at the base of a Jackmanii clematis on a pillar, and it is reaching up to play with the dark purple blooms of the clematis, and it really compliments the Digitalis and Echinacea plants next to it as well. The third is planted at the base of a birch tree and currently mingling with a small section of herbs in a sunnier edge of one bed, and it is also filling space next to a Stained Glass Hosta, a clematis climbing up the birch, and some shade plants tucked into the center portion of the bed. I can't say enough good things about Rozanne !

I have a bunch of other perennial geraniums and I feel that this genus really is a workhorse in the garden and would not be without them. The groundcover varieties are perfect for the front edge of beds, gently spilling over onto pathways. I have also tried with the Bikovo types to pull off a chunk and re-plant. Yes, it does work very well, if you get some roots. The new plant will sulk the first year but be back to new next spring.

As far as Rozanne is concerned, I don't think I would try to split her. It looks like most stems come from a single point/crown, unlike the spreading Bikovo types, so if you try to slice through the center, it would probably damage the plant too much. They are usually available locally, so if I want another one, I'd rather buy a nice sized established plant. They are well worth the $$ in my garden.