I last thought seriously about Geranium phaeum, aka \u201cthe mourning widow,\u201d about six years ago.\u00a0 I was in the first throes of a serious love affair with all kinds of hardy geraniums and was swept off my feet by the phaeum species, because it thrives so well in shade.\u00a0 I bought one and it died, so after lamenting the death of the \u201cmourning widow\u201d, I moved on to other plants that gave greater satisfaction.<\/p>\n
The love affair with hardy geraniums has settled into a happy marriage, which is evident throughout my garden.\u00a0 I have masses of the indispensable bigroot geranium\u2014Geranium macrorrhizum\u2014in several places.\u00a0 Right now its pink flowers are in their glory and the apple-scented foliage charms whenever I brush up against it.\u00a0 \u2018Biokovo\u2019, a variety of Geranium cantabrigiense, is also blooming and its finely dissected foliage is beautiful every day.\u00a0 Both make excellent ground covers and work hard at stomping weeds, which means less labor for this lazy gardener.\u00a0 Other geraniums ornament various corners beautifully and ask little of me.<\/p>\n
But last weekend, as I toured the magical garden of a horticultural master of my acquaintance, I came face to face with Geranium phaeum once again.\u00a0 My host grows several varieties, all flourishing in shady spots, but I was most struck by the healthy clumps of \u2018Samobor\u2019.\u00a0 Like most phaeums, the plants stand up to 24 inches tall and perhaps 12 inches wide.\u00a0 The nodding flowers at the tops of the stalks are dark maroon-purple, with slightly reflexed petals and a white \u201ceye\u201d in the center of each bloom.\u00a0 \u2018Samobor\u2019s late spring flowers are lovely, but its best features are the leaves, which bear distinctive, pointed lobes.\u00a0 To add to the show, each leaf is also marked with a wide ring of dramatic purple-black blotches.<\/p>\n
As a species, Geranium phaeum, sometimes also known as \u201cdusky cranesbill\u201d or \u201cblack widow\u201d, is native to parts of Eurasia, including Croatia.\u00a0 \u2018Samobor\u2019 is a naturally occurring variant of the species, found growing 25 years ago at an English nursery.\u00a0 Fittingly, it was named after a Croatian town.\u00a0 It was introduced into commerce in this country by the late, lamented Heronswood Nursery of Kitsap, Washington.\u00a0 Though not as wildly popular as sun-loving hardy geraniums like \u2018Rozanne\u2019, \u2018Samobor\u2019 has acquired a following of its own.<\/p>\n
But wait–as they say on late night ads–there\u2019s more.\u00a0 A check of the online specialty plant marketplace reveals a host of mourning widow varieties in many shades of mourning dress.\u00a0 Varietal variations also include the presence or absence of leaf markings.\u00a0 \u2018Advendo\u2019, for example features solid green leaves and large flowers in a clear, reddish-purple.\u00a0 \u2018Margaret Wilson\u2019 does not have maroon-blotched leaves, but the deeply cut foliage is adorned by green and white variegation.\u00a0 The flowers are pale purple.\u00a0 \u2018Langthorn\u2019s\u2019 Blue\u2019 features maroon leaf splotches and reflexed blue-purple flowers suffused with white.\u00a0 Compared with other mourning widows, \u2018Album\u2019 looks positively cheerful, with pure white flowers and somewhat marked foliage.\u00a0 German breeders have brought forth \u2018Walkure\u2019 and \u2018Mierhausen\u2019, the former featuring lighter-colored flowers than the latter, though both bear purplish blooms with white overtones.<\/p>\n
If Geranium phaeum works in your garden, try growing clumps of several varieties to make the most of the contrast in foliage textures and colors.<\/p>\n
Encourage\u00a0 mourning widows to thrive, rather than moping around the garden, by providing them with partial shade and consistently moist soil.\u00a0 Moisture is most important when they are establishing themselves.\u00a0 Thereafter, the plants can tolerate some drought.\u00a0 No matter what the conditions, I am inclined to help out Mother Nature with a good blanket of mulch.\u00a0 Like all cranesbills, the phaeum varieties bear seedheads that resemble long-beaked birds.\u00a0 If not deadheaded, they are perfectly capable of spitting their seeds some distance, so be on the lookout for baby mourning widows\u2014sometimes in unexpected places.<\/p>\n
Mourning widow is a rather grim nickname for a very useful group of perennial plants.\u00a0 The flowers, though attractive, are fleeting, but the foliage carries the plants gracefully through the entire growing season.\u00a0 Find a good selection at Digging Dog Nursery, 31101 Middle Ridge Rd., Albion, CA 95410, (707) 937-1130, www.diggingdog.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Another good source is Geraniaceae, 122 Hillcrest Ave., Kentfield, CA 94904, (415) 461-4168, geraniaceae.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I last thought seriously about Geranium phaeum, aka \u201cthe mourning widow,\u201d about six years ago.\u00a0 I was in the first throes of a serious love affair with all kinds of hardy geraniums and was swept off my feet by the phaeum species, because it thrives so well in shade.\u00a0 I bought one and it died, … 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],"tags":[1194,175,257,1193,174,1192,737,126,551],"class_list":["post-1349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-colorful-foliage-plants","tag-cranesbills","tag-deer-resistant-plants","tag-geranium-phaeum","tag-hardy-geraniums","tag-mourning-widow","tag-perennials","tag-shade-plants","tag-spring-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349","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=1349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1350,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions\/1350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}