Midsummer gardens can be a challenge. Roses are fading and late-summerflowers are still gearing up.
But you can keep the colour going with hardy geraniums.
From pale pink to shocking magenta, they will flower their hearts out right through to autumn. As legendary plantswoman Margery Fish said back in the Sixties: “When in doubt, plant a geranium.”
Hardy geraniums are nothing to do with those familiar bright pink and red ubiquitous container plants — technically pelargoniums.
Hardy geraniums are more delicate-stemmed plants, dying away every winter to re-emerge in spring.
They won’t be bothered by diseases and slugs, can be grown in any spot from blazing sun to dry shade under a tree, and they don’t let weeds get a look-in.
Every garden needs them, and it’s not too late to plant them to fill those gaps so they can work their magic this summer.
Their lovely habit of sprawling into their neighbours creates a sense of companiable fullness. They are the glue that stops a garden looking like a collection of plants queuing up by the fence.
If you have a metre-sized gap in a sunny border, Geranium Patricia will fill it effortlessly, quickly forming a metre-high mound of fresh green leaves smothered in mood-lifting magenta flowers with black centres from May to November.
Repeat it further down the garden for a big, bold statement.
Orion will do the same thing, but in blue. If either of these gets unruly, just cut it back and it will quickly resprout in a tidier way.
For slightly lower-growing plants of about half a metre tall, perfect for filling smaller gaps or nudging out on to paths or patios, Ann Folkard, also magenta, is hard to beat.
Plantswoman Sarah Raven wouldn’t do without elegant Mavis Simpson, which flowers for six months, making a soft cushion topped with pale pink flowers.
Try Geranium sanguineum, or bloody cranesbill, if you like a punchier pink. Plant it at the corner of a bed to make a splash, or under roses or other shrubs to cover their feet.
For a Chelsea designer’s choice, Jo Thompson raves about Geranium Catherine Deneuve’s “elegant, magenta-starred wonderfulness that goes on for months”, and Summer Skies, “a gorgeous tiny explosion of petals in soft, pinky lilac” that bees love.
For fans of white gardens, Thompson recommends Kashmir White, which will scramble up and through its neighbours, its flowers veined thinly with pink to give “a subtle, translucent quality”.
In shade where colour is hard to attain, Rozanne swoops to the rescue.
Named plant of the centenary by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2013 for good reason, it makes a metre-wide clump of lavender-blue flowers from June to October.
If you want something more unusual check out Lilac Ice. It’s similar but Thompson says it’s a prettier colour.
To echo the colour on the sunnier side of your garden, plant Orion or Brookside there. These superheroes are even the answer where other plants would wilt — under trees, for example, or in the rain shadow of a fence where soil is dry and shaded.
Groundcover Geranium phaeum won’t mind, covering bare areas with dusky purple flowers and fresh green leaves. The white version looks great with ferns.
Container growers will love low-growing geranium sanguineum striatum. Or try Orkney Cherry for dark leaves with bright pink flowers.
These will tumble over the sides of the pot to bring a classic English cottage feel to patios and courtyards.
Hardy geraniums are the supporting act, making the star players look good — but we’d be lost without them.
Sarah Raven: sarahraven.com
Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants: hardysplants.co.uk
Ian and Teresa Moss: hardyandunusualplants.co.uk
