We came from The thread "Show Us Your Cottage Garden & Chat (October 2011)" in Cottage Gardening forum



Another month away from summer means another month closer to Spring!
Welcome all!

Thought I'd just bring my last post over here:

Yes, Janice, I am a semp lover. I have a lot more but couldn't locate the pictures. Well, that's enough for now anyway since it's probably time for a new thread. Beautiful photos of your late bloomers up there! I have a few Cosmose still going. Bottom middle ... is that a hardy Geranium or?

I'd go with the Arachnoideum semps, Jo Ann, Living Stones (Lithops) are very tricky. They like it warm and dry ... period. Absolutely no tolerance for anything else. But they are from South Africa so that's their mother climate. About one extra drop of water and they are history. :(

I finally coaxed a bloom out of this one. I love them but they try my patience.

Janice, Have you had success with the hardy Geraniums in your zone?

Thanks, Tee!
Yes, a hardy geranium it is and my favorite. Forgot the name. They do quite well in this zone. How bout yours?
Just moved a piece of it to the back garden near the steps.
The scent of the leaves is a perfume like nothing else. Every time I go out there I take a 1/2 of a leaf. I am surprised there is anything left !!

Someone gave me one earlier in the year. It came from zone 5 and seems to be doing okay, but I guess next year will tell the tale. Where do you plant yours?

I had the same plant in zone 7A in Mass. , then planted one here as well. I planted it in sunny spots both places and they did fine. I know they are shade plants too....

? Sorry to ease drop in on the conversation , but I grow several hardy geraniums and they do not smell nice . Am I missing something?

Hi Cinda -- Mine have a rather pungent and sharp smell. I wouldn't describe it as nice, but not totally awful. However, a little goes a long way. I wouldn't want it in the house and I wouldn't grow these for the scent, let's put it that way.

Hi Cinda! Join in anytime, please!
I believe mine is Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety'.
It is described as having a pine scent. I have also seen it described as a sweetbriar scent. Whatever it is, it is wonderful.
Has magenta pink flowers, gets 12" tall, blooms May-July, and is very hardy, and has that leaf scent all year.
My favorite,"don't want to be without" species Geranium.

I found a picture, Cinda, of it blooming along the walk here in April.

Ok, now I have to go out and smell my hardy geraniums ...well maybe I' ll wait till morning

Love, love, love me some hardy Geraniums. I have Rozanne (can't believe she's still blooming - one tough cookie, I planted her in late May and she's been blooming non-stop for a couple of months now) Orion (taking a long time to really settle in, got only 3-4 blooms this year, second year) Johnson's Blue (my favorite of the flowers, if not the plant itself) Wargrave pink (barely survived a hot and dry summer - only one plant out of 3) Espresso (milk chocolate leaves, no blooms yet) and a NOID that might be Sanguineum - that dark pink that the catalogs call 'rose' - blooms for quite a while and is spreading nicely (pictured below).

Most of mine are in mostly sunny areas except the Rozanne, which is under some viburnum with an eastern exposure.

Sorry, this is a November thread and that's a late April picture...

Well, as long as I'm off track I may as well as really do it up. For folks who were asking about buying succulents, this is a nursery that used to be *really* specialized with stuff almost no one had heard of. The original owner sold it and went back to school and I haven't shopped there since, but here's the URL, anyway - you can probably still find some pretty interesting stuff there.

http://www.shoalcreeksucculent...

My Rozanne is still blooming, too. It started in late May or early June and has never been out of bloom since. Incredible plant.

Karen

Shoal Creek is good ... thanks for the link, Sheryl. I use Simply Succulents for a lot of semps, jovis, heuffs and so forth. I've gotten nice things from them.

Do you have a picture of your geranium, Karen? Do you have others? I have no idea what the name of mine is since it was sent to me in a swap and had no tag. Time will tell.

Great, Sheryl! Love those geranium varieties.

Tee, do you have a photo of your Geranium?

Tee, the most recent photo I have of my Rozanne was October 4


August (center of photo)


June - it has never been out of bloom since, still flowering today.



Karen

Karen, that Rozanne is beautiful and what a long bloomer! See, I don't care about the smell if they are spectacular bloomers like that. Well, within reason and outside.

I could take a picture of the foliage, Janice, but I don't have one of it in flower. And for the life of me I can't even remember what color it is. If anyone spots my brain going by, please return it to the owner.

Really and truly, this plant is amazing. I bought it as a tiny little thing from Bluestone last fall, planted it then. It overwintered well, started blooming in very late May or early June, I forget which. I swear, it has been blooming ever since. And not just a few blossoms- loads of them all the time. Even today, Nov. 2, it still has pretty many flowers. Several nights of frost haven't fazed it. Like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going. In summer it gets sun from late morning to early afternoon. Now it gets little direct sun, 2 or 3 hours max, but is still blooming.

I have never been so impressed by a plant. I recently bought another from Santa Rosa for another spot. Bluestone's prices have skyrocketed, I won't be buying from them any more.
The thread "Did Bluestone's prices go up A LOT???" in All Things Gardening forum

Karen

Beautiful Rozanne, Karen! Love that it is blooming so long!

Tee! Yes, a pic of the leaves may ID it, if you can post.