Pelargonium quercifolium Royal Oak

The Pelargonium quercifolium 'Royal Oak' is a variety of oak leaf scented geranium with marbled and veined dark brown foliage that releases a pleasant balsamic fragrance with almond notes at the slightest touch. Its flowers are also more pink than those of the botanical species. It forms a lovely bush with spreading foliage and an upright habit, adorned with shiny evergreen leaves, roundly cut. The entire plant is sticky and loaded with a pleasantly aromatic essential oil. It offers very pretty pink flowers throughout the summer, which are quite large and grouped in small umbels above the foliage. This plant is frost-sensitive and should be protected from freezing temperatures in winter. It will thrive in full sun, in well-drained soil, even limestone and occasionally dry in summer.

The Pelargonium quercifolium 'Royal Oak' belongs to the Geraniaceae family. The wild form, called oak-leaf scented geranium, is a shrubby species confined in nature to the southwest of the Cape Province, South Africa, between 400 and 1000 m (1312 and 3281ft) altitude, in a region where summers are hot and dry and where occasional light frosts occur. It grows on rocky, sandy, or limestone soils. In nature, this vigorous pelargonium forms a highly branched bush occasionally exceeding 1.50 m (5ft) in height and 70 cm (28in) in width. In our climates, cultivated in a pot, the Royal Oak variety will reach about 60 cm (24in) in height and 40-50 cm (16-20in) in width. Its downy and soft branches, covered with green hairs when young, become woody over time. They bear evergreen leaves in winter, very aromatic, slightly sticky, divided into 5 or 7 rigid, rounded and coarsely dentate lobes. Their surprisingly shiny colour is a fairly dark green, maculated with almost black brown in the centre. This pelargonium blooms in summer. The flowers are grouped in small umbels, 5 to 10 in number. They are quite large, sometimes measuring more than 2.5 cm (1in) in length, and are pink. The upper two petals are marked with red spots and are slightly larger than the three lower petals. The entire plant is fragrant.

The Pelargonium quercifolium 'Royal Oak' is an excellent, exotic, undemanding plant, as beautiful to look at as it is delightful to smell. So plant it in a pot or the ground, in a place where you can feast on it, along a path or in a large pot, on a patio or in the conservatory, never too far from the house, or even inside the house, in a poorly heated room in winter. In very mild climates, it is a plant that ideally withstands summer drought and requires very little maintenance, making it valuable for dry gardens by the sea.