Carolina geranium is a weed, but I've also seen a wild cranesbill that I think is ornamental- I think it is maculatum?

Here is a link that might be useful: Carolina Geranium

You've done it again Brenda! That's my plant/weed. Do I consider it a weed because it is everywhere or do I consider it a native? Can its growth be controlled? Does it have a worthwhile bloom? I keep pulling it before it blooms. I guess sometimes it is a matter of preference. I think a patch of henbit and violets would be pretty but that would be asking for trouble. I thibnk back to living on a farm and there were many things we considered weeds that people pay money for such as perennial sweet peas. They took down a couple of fences. I threw out lots of ajuga before I realized it has a purpose. So should I keep some? Shannon/Dirtrx

The weed geranium has smaller leaves than the Carolina geranium, and all grow from one node above the ground that is usually pinkish red in color. It's an obnoxious weed (I've been yanking a lot of it lately), with flowers too small to be ornamental. The Carolina geranium is lovely.

I'm with you, Shannon. Weeds can be pretty. I leave the violets, unless they're really in the way. I pull the henbit, but it is pretty. My MIL calls all my salvias weeds, but I guess in southern Cal, where she's from, they might be weeds, or at least natives. Funny about common names, Alicia. I know Geranium carolinianum - the weed - as "Carolina geranium", and I call Geranium maculatum - the ornamental one - just "that ornamental native geranium," though I've heard it called Spotted Geranium, but never noticed spots. Oh well.

I guess I needn't pot any up for the swap LOL. Shannon

i leave it be in my natural areas, yank it in the areas i've cultivated. i think the foliage is pretty. i love violets and leave them in the lawn and our ditch out front. i do pull them from the beds, but am encouraging the pure white and white with purple striped ones by moving them among the patches of solid purple. up north we also had yellow violets, and i saw a patch of red-violet ones once. i even like the little white annual violas that pop up & i adore the quaker ladies. we don't mind the creeping charlie in the yard- it's green & stays low- but i pull it from the beds. and creeping jenny makes the best ditch liner(along with those violets). i think a weed is only a plant without a discovered purpose yet. well, unless it takes over the world- ala kudzu- but even kudzu can be eaten. not that i'm asking for any!! :) lol. tam

Yes, I mean the G. maculatum is lovely. I started thinking of it as Carolina geranium and it stuck in my head. We found a clump near a pasture fence that I have moved (since that area gets mowed) and divided about fifty times, so now I have it all over the place.

LOL, I would never consider violets weeds, I actually transplanted the common blue violet from DH's grandmother's place. We have what may be marsh violets and V. palmata but not the common blue. I like the little white violas too, we even have them growing in the middle of our gravel driveway. And bluets -- although I've read they're actually hard to grow if you try.

I have something,lol... just never sure at a given moment which is which. We do have lots of violets, which I love. They grow in a big patch near a tree.

Wild Geranium (Spotted Geranium) Geranium maculatum
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/geraniummacu.html

Carolina Geranium (Geranium carolinianum)
http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/carolina_geranium_12/

Common Mallow (Malva neglecta)
http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/common_mallow_11/

Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/ground_ivy_9/

Creeping Speedwell (Veronica filiformis) (Figwort)
http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/creeping_speedwell_2/