Geranium Rothbury Red

The Rothbury Red perennial geranium is a small ground cover with dense and compact vegetation and moderately spreading growth. Its long white flowering in cup-shaped blooms, beautifully contrasts with bronze foliage tinted with green and purple, pleasantly cut and lobed. Hardy and accommodating, it is a very resistant variety, which is content with rainwater in summer, ordinary soil, and a sunny or semi-shady exposure. It covers the ground of a flowerbed, creeps between the stones of the rockery, or spills out of a pot on the terrace.

The Rothbury Red perennial geranium belongs to the Geraniaceae family. It is a hybrid of Geranium oxonianum and G. antipodeum, selected by Cyril Foster and introduced by Blooms of Bressingham in England. It combines numerous qualities. It forms a height of 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12in), spreading over 40 cm (16in). It has a vegetation that is both compact, dense and spreading. Its leaves are hairy, slightly pleated, and dissected. They have visible veins and five divided lobes. The evergreen foliage in winter is magnificent, chocolate brown tinged with purple and a hint of green. The plant displays numerous funnel-shaped flowers, open, pendulous, very slightly tinged with pink and finely veined with gray, with a darker center, between June and September.

This Rothbury Red perennial geranium is a unique and easy-to-grow ground cover, which finds its place in rockeries, perennial or low shrub flower beds, along pathways, on slopes, or in pots on the terrace. It is a good companion for Hepaticas, Columbines, Paeonies, or even Ferns in moist soil. In drier soil, it can be associated, for example, with small Periwinkles, the silver foliage of Artemisias, or to dress the base of a 'Maiden's Blush' Alba Rose.