Thank you everyone for all the great feedback. Kat: So Jolly Bee? Sounds like a neat plant also. I will look it up. My bed is nice and long so I think that will be a good space for this plant to stretch its legs. Cindi: Your bed sounds so pretty. Some great combinations there. I love it. If you would like some help posting photos drop me an email. The recommended place to start is with a free account like at photobucket.com. I'm happy to help if you like. Gardengal: Hmm, I had not thought of that. You smart girl. Maybe I will call the big nursery up in Paradise and ask them to get a flat for me if possible. Our local nursery is nice but they have trouble getting large quantities of anything. Again thanks folks. Kate

A couple possibilities come to mind. Are they new plants? If so, they may be having trouble establishing and that would explain their dryness. Since they do perk up when you water, that is most likely the problem. Do you have them in good, loose, organically rich soil? Do you have mulch around them? Mulch is VERY important when a plant is dry. I have Rozannes and they are like troopers here in our heat, which just has to be worse than yours. I give them no more water than any other plant in my yard. However, they do not like to have their roots disturbed and sulk for weeks after division. I don't remember them sulking when I first planted them, but they might have. If they're in good soil and you have three or four inches of mulch around them, they ought to be okay on regular water, even if they are new plants.

'Rozanne' is amazingly beautiful when used as a scrambling/twining weaver among perennial beds. A tidy specimen plant she is not. She gets large but her long stems are never heavy enough to overwhelm most companions. And she responds to both hard and selective pruning like a trooper. I am fairly new to hardy geraniums but up to this point I have never seen one look truly happy, healthy or vigorous when grown in nursery pots for sale. Most of the geraniums I planted early last spring were tiny, sad things that mainly sulked during the summer. I had fairly low expectations based on their underwhelming performance last year, but now they have grown into lush, charming plants. I suspect many of these plants fit into the 1st year-sleep, 2nd year creep, 3rd year-leap rule. It has been a very cool but stable spring in my area. 3 clumps of 'Rozanne' have been blooming sparsely for the past week, while the rest are forming buds. Also blooming now are 'Tiny Monster' (also started last week), magnificum 'Rosemoor' (ditto), 'Elizabeth Ann' (started three weeks ago and still going strong) and pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' (started over a month ago and blooms have been becoming both larger and more numerous now). 'Bevan's Variety' and 'Biokovo' have been blooming for past two weeks. 'Blue Sunrise', Geranium wlassovianum and G. himalayense 'Derrick Cook' are still busy forming buds.

Since 'Jolly Bee' received its patent before 'Rozanne' and it has slightly different documented parentage, it would be hard to support any claim of patent infringement :-) I grow both myself and while they share a close similarity in flower color and length of bloom time, I do notice a difference between the two plants. JB is much more upright and a bit of a clumper, staying within about a 24" diameter. Rozanne is a sprawler, with stems that have extended 3-4 feet, sometimes more, and it is a low grower that clambers up and through neigboring plants. Rozanne also sports distinct chartreuse or grass green marbling to the new foliage, which JB lacks. But the distinctions are subtle and something that someone other than a plant geek might easily overlook.