Geranium All Summer Blue

The Geranium All Summer Blue is a recent variety, particularly vigorous and floriferous. Its large pinkish-purple flowers, veined with purple, bloom for a very long time, from June to October. It enjoys the sun but will also flower in light shade.

This hardy perennial geranium belongs to the Geraniaceae family, which includes many other garden stars such as Rozanne, Johnson Blue, and Dreamland, as well as the genus Erodium, which is more suited to rockeries. All Summer Blue (from the Magical series) is a new hybrid derived from Geranium wallichianum, a well-known species among horticulturists: it forms a deciduous clump with deeply cut leaves of a deep green colour, often marked with lighter spots at the base of the lobes, and produces long creeping stems capable of weaving between neighbouring plants without smothering them. The large cup-shaped flowers of this species are highly variable, hence its value in obtaining new varieties.

In All Summer Blue, the clump forms a ground-covering dome 40 cm (16in) tall when in bloom, and 60 cm (0 and 24in) wide. The large pinkish-purple flowers veined with purple bloom above the clump, carried by slender reddish aerial stems, over a very long period, often from June to October, sometimes even longer if the weather is mild.

Very accommodating, the geranium All Summer Blue will brighten up flowerbeds in any good garden soil that is not too dry in summer or too heavy. It will go wonderfully with shrub roses in a classic garden but also, in a more natural setting, with catmints, Stachys grandiflora, or even Persicaria affinis 'Superba' as a border. It will also look stunning with fine-leaved grasses such as Deschampsia cespitosa or Molinia arundinacea.