Geranium phaeum and some of the other early geraniums are the best repeat flowerers.
I'm not sure which varieties you're trying to describe B3 - the 'rooty' ones? - maybe macrorrhizum or cantabrigiense? I don't get repeat flowering with those.
If you're not sure what you've got I'd cut any soft stem ones back after flowering - at the least you'll get some nice fresh growth. The others often look better for just a little tidy up after flowering.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
The scented leaf kinds are pelargoniums. They flower again because you deadhead them, although you wouldn't describe them as repeat flowering. It isn't the same thing.
Hardy geraniums don't really have scented foliage as such, but cutting back the early flowering types, as T'bird says, will result in fresh growth and often another flush of flowers. Don't know what you mean by rooty things either, although some varieties spread by sending out more stems at ground level which then produce foliage and flowering stems.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Geranium macrorhizum foliage is scented FG and, in a mild winter, turns red and stays until spring when it can be tidied up in time for flowering and fresh green foliage..
I cut all my geraniums back, regardless of type, once they finish their first big flush of flowers. I just cut them all back to an inch or two, scatter on some general purpose fertlitiser such as pelleted chicken manure and water them. In 3 weeks time they'll have grown back fresh, healthy leaves that look good with our without new flowers.
My scented leaf pelargonium has only flowered once and that was years ago. Now I keep it pruned and tidy so it has fresh leaves for my ice cream infused with its foliage. The flowers are really insignificant anyway.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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Geranium phaeum and some of the other early geraniums are the best repeat flowerers.
I'm not sure which varieties you're trying to describe B3 - the 'rooty' ones? - maybe macrorrhizum or cantabrigiense? I don't get repeat flowering with those.
If you're not sure what you've got I'd cut any soft stem ones back after flowering - at the least you'll get some nice fresh growth. The others often look better for just a little tidy up after flowering.
The scented leaf kinds are pelargoniums. They flower again because you deadhead them, although you wouldn't describe them as repeat flowering. It isn't the same thing.
Hardy geraniums don't really have scented foliage as such, but cutting back the early flowering types, as T'bird says, will result in fresh growth and often another flush of flowers. Don't know what you mean by rooty things either, although some varieties spread by sending out more stems at ground level which then produce foliage and flowering stems.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Geranium macrorhizum foliage is scented FG and, in a mild winter, turns red and stays until spring when it can be tidied up in time for flowering and fresh green foliage..
I cut all my geraniums back, regardless of type, once they finish their first big flush of flowers. I just cut them all back to an inch or two, scatter on some general purpose fertlitiser such as pelleted chicken manure and water them. In 3 weeks time they'll have grown back fresh, healthy leaves that look good with our without new flowers.
My scented leaf pelargonium has only flowered once and that was years ago. Now I keep it pruned and tidy so it has fresh leaves for my ice cream infused with its foliage. The flowers are really insignificant anyway.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Ah - I don't grow any of those Obelixx, but I assumed B3 was meaning pelargoniums.
I have such a poor sense of smell I probably wouldn't be able to smell the foliage anyway
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thought as much. They're very good in dry shade and I don't suppose you have much dry anything most of the year.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Not even under the conifers Obelixx!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This is the one I was talking about.
Obelixx has identified it.
I usually just tidy it up a bit.
It must be the other kind that people mean when they say that they chop them back and get another flush.
Thanks for your help Fg & O & Tb
Last edited: 11 June 2017 12:46:39
Apologies B3 - I should have seen that you said hardy geraniums in your title too.
I'm just getting senile
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Join the club - if I can remember where it is
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...