The Perennial Plant Association (PPA) is 31 year-old trade and industry group that seeks to promote perennial plants through education, lobbying and publicity efforts.\u00a0 The plants probably don\u2019t care about this, but the horticultural industry that depends on them does.\u00a0 Every year at about this time, the PPA rouses winter-bound gardeners all over the country by announcing the selection of a hardy, dependable perennial as its \u201cPerennial Plant of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 The 2015 winner is one of my favorites: Geranium x catabrigiense \u2018Biokovo.\u2019<\/p>\n
This geranium with the tongue-twisting name is one of the hardy geranium tribe, not to be confused with the big-headed pelargoniums that we grow in our pots and window boxes in temperate weather.\u00a0 Both belong to the geranium or Geraniaceae family, but while pelargoniums cannot survive freezing winter temperatures, hardy geraniums shrug them off.<\/p>\n
\u2018Biokovo\u2019 is a low-grower, reaching only six to 10 inches high, but spreading somewhat farther.\u00a0 It bears rounded, lobed foliage and lots of butterfly-like pinkish white flowers that hover above the leaves.\u00a0 The flowers, which are greatly enhanced by prominent dark pink stamens, generally bloom in late spring and last a respectable amount of time on the plants.\u00a0 When not in flower, \u2018Biokovo\u2019 makes an excellent ground cover, providing an even, weed-preventing carpet in sunny to lightly shaded areas.\u00a0 Because of its short stature and rather shallow roots, the plant should go in the front of the border, at the feet of shrubs, or in the rock garden.\u00a0 It also does nicely on lightly shaded slopes.\u00a0 A happy \u2018Biokovo\u2019 will spread efficiently over time and is easy to divide or transplant.\u00a0 It needs almost no attention and is not bothered by pests.\u00a0 In my yard, at least, the deer do not touch it and, in fact, will lean right over it to get to their favorite lilies.\u00a0 This may be because of the geranium\u2019s lightly scented foliage or it might be due to divine intervention.\u00a0 Either way, \u2018Biokovo\u2019 seems to be protected.<\/p>\n
While hardy geraniums have been on the ornamental gardening scene for quite awhile, especially in England, \u2018Biokovo\u2019 is something of a Johnny-come-lately.\u00a0 According to Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips, in their excellent book, Perennials<\/i>, a similar plant, a hybrid between bigroot geranium\u2014Geranium macrorrhizum\u2014and Dalmatian geranium\u2014Geranium dalmaticum\u2014was first raised in 1974, by Dr. Helen Kiefer at the University Botanic Garden of Cambridge University.\u00a0 The Cambridge geranium had bright pink flowers, but was otherwise very similar to a pinkish-white-flowered hybrid of the same two species found growing wild in the Biokovo Mountains in Croatia.\u00a0 In honor of both discoveries, the lighter colored hybrid was given the Latinized form of the university\u2019s name\u2014\u201ccantabrigiense\u201d\u2014as its species name and the \u2018Biokovo\u2019 varietal name in honor of the home of the naturally occurring hybrid.<\/p>\n
\u2018Biokovo\u2019 is justifiably popular with discerning gardeners, as well as lazy ones like me who appreciate a truly carefree plant.\u00a0 It is offered by the nursery at East Lambrook Manor in Somerset, England, the celebrated garden of the late garden doyenne, writer and hardy geranium enthusiast, Margery Fish.\u00a0 Mrs. Fish, who created her cottage landscape in the 1940\u2019s, \u201850\u2019s and \u201860\u2019s and died in 1969, did not live long enough to discover \u2018Biokovo,\u2019 but it would fit perfectly in her garden.\u00a0 In her time and now, hardy geraniums nestle in beds and crannies in rock walls.\u00a0 It is perhaps fitting that the East Lambrook Manor nursery also supplies a lovely little hardy geranium named in honor of Oxford University, Geranium x oxonianum \u2018Rose Clair.\u2019<\/p>\n
Varieties of hardy geranium also grow at Sissinghurst in Kent, England, the enormously popular garden created in the mid twentieth century by writer Vita Sackville West and her diplomat husband, Harold Nicolson.\u00a0 I am not sure \u2018Biokovo\u2019 is there, but its close relations certainly are.<\/p>\n
Hardy geraniums are also sometimes called \u201ccranesbills,\u201d because their seedheads look a bit like the heads of the long-beaked birds.\u00a0 After the flower petals have faded, the seedheads remain and add interest to the plants.<\/p>\n
Because of the PPA \u201cPlant of the Year\u201d distinction, \u2018Biokovo\u2019 will probably be everywhere this spring, from big box stores to high-end garden centers.\u00a0 Once you get your specimen home, all you really have to do is put it in the ground.\u00a0 Water regularly for the first month or so, if rain is not forthcoming every few days, and the plant will flourish.\u00a0 After a couple of years it will be big enough to divide and spread around.\u00a0 Unlike other plants with territorial tendencies, hardy geraniums are vigorous but mannerly.<\/p>\n
Sometimes marketers hype plants that are fashionable but unworthy.\u00a0 This year, the PPA has picked an enduring winner.\u00a0 Whether you think of it as a sturdy child of Croatia or an elegant alumnus of Cambridge University, \u2018Biokovo\u2019 is most likely to succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Perennial Plant Association (PPA) is 31 year-old trade and industry group that seeks to promote perennial plants through education, lobbying and publicity efforts.\u00a0 The plants probably don\u2019t care about this, but the horticultural industry that depends on them does.\u00a0 Every year at about this time, the PPA rouses winter-bound gardeners all over the country … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1103,257,1107,1106,589,174,1109,1108,1104,1105],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-biokovo-geranium","tag-deer-resistant-plants","tag-geranium-family","tag-geranium-x-catabrigiense","tag-groundcovers","tag-hardy-geraniums","tag-lambrook-manor","tag-margery-fish","tag-perennial-plant-association","tag-plant-of-the-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}