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Geranium phaeum |
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| Conspicuously marked foliage on offspring of 'Samobor' |
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| Hairy buds look nifty up close |
Common name |
mourning widow geranium |
Family |
geraniaceae |
Life cycle |
perennial (Z5-9) |
Flowers |
purple (May) |
Size |
2' |
Light |
part-full shade |
Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil (not too dry) |
From seed |
germinate cold detailed seed-starting info below
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This hardy geranium holds its flowers higher above the foliage than most others. For us so far, the foliage has stayed low (under 12"), with the flowers on stalks above. The dark purple flowers are best admired up close.
Our first plant was the plain species - it lived for a few years, then faded away. Luckily, right around that time, I raised seedlings of several varieties, including 'Samobor' with leaves marked maroon. They bloomed by the following year.
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| Leaves fairly light in color, medium in cut and size |
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| One of our plants has chartreuse leaves, brightening up a shady spot in the garden. |
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| Chartreuse selection in bloom, with slightly lighter purple flowers |
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We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston. Read about all the cranesbills in our garden on my geraniums page About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Geranium phaeum
Visitors to this page have left the following commentsGretchen Blanchard | Apr 24, 2009 | I've had this geranium for at least 10 years here in Southeast Alaska and it's one of the most reliable plants in my garden. I get a lot of comments. Thanks for the wonderful pictures! |
Barb | May 04, 2010 | I've looked for some time to id this flower! Thank you for the great info. |
Justine | Nov 29, 2010 | Hi. Can you help me decipher your comments on germination? I've tried to germinate these seeds a few different ways and have had no success, but haven't tried using a cold treatment. It looks like you had the seeds in a baggy and placed them at 35 degrees farenheit and yet your best success was 35% after a 47 day treatment. What is the 19-40d mean following the 35%? Thank you in advance for any help. Justine For more detailed information about those records, just click the icon below. The 19-40d means that germination started after 19 days at cold conditions, and continued for 11 days beyond that. |
Hesh | Feb 26, 2014 | I know you are not giving these Geraniums for free, I guess I will have to get new glasses. prices ? WW2 Guy, & retired commercial grower. You don't see prices because for the most part my plants are not for sale - this is my personal hobby website. |
Anna | Jul 05, 2020 | A friend gave me one plant years ago, and now my garden is full of them! I swear every seed germinates - very very invasive. A seed gives one small plant - which grown each year into a bigger and bigger clump! Easy to pull out though, but I feel guilty when I do - silly me! |
- Seed from '02 trade. Baggy 35F (12w; 5%G, 5w) - 70F (5%G, 4w)
- Seed for 'Sambor' from '05 trade. Baggy 35F (13w; 20%G, 7-13w) - 70F (3%G, 2d)
- Seed for 'mix' from '05 trade. Baggy 35F (47d; 35%G, 19-40d) - 70F (no G, 30d)
My experience so far suggests that the seeds should remain cold, even when the first ones start to germinate; very little germination occurs after moving to room temperature.
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