I grew up in a town that was less than an hour\u2019s drive from Niagara Falls, but the only time we paid a call on that natural wonder was when we hosted visitors from England.\u00a0 In similar fashion, I have lived\u2014at least horticulturally speaking\u2014near the perennial \u00a0hardy geranium \u2018Rozanne\u2019 since its introduction in 2000, but never installed one in my own garden until now.<\/p>\n
Of course, I have recommended \u2018Rozanne\u2019 many times and even installed it in friends\u2019 gardens, but somehow, other plants kept capturing my attention.\u00a0 Like the crows that occasionally inhabit my landscape, I have a weakness for the garden equivalent of shiny objects.<\/p>\n
For those who have not seen \u2018Rozanne\u2019 in garden centers and nurseries everywhere, the plant is a relative low-grower, maxing out at twelve to fifteen inches tall and equally wide when mature.\u00a0 It has graceful, deeply dissected green foliage that reddens in the fall, as well as a somewhat sprawling, mounding habit.\u00a0 It moves through the front of the border beautifully, interweaving itself into a tapestry with plants of similar habit.<\/p>\n
Foliage and habit are great assets, but \u2018Rozanne\u2019s real glory is its flowers.\u00a0 At up to one inch wide, they are some of the largest in the hardy geranium or cranesbill clan.\u00a0 All \u201cblue\u201d cranesbills feature at least a hint of purple coloring, but \u2018Rozanne\u2019s flowers are among the bluest, with five sky-blue petals surrounding a pale blue-white central \u201ceye zone\u201d.\u00a0 Those flowers are not shrinking violets either; holding themselves above the foliage so that onlookers can appreciate them.\u00a0 Perhaps best of all, the plant is a rebloomer, producing flowers at intervals throughout the growing season.<\/p>\n
The plant\u2019s tags all say \u201cfull sun to part shade,\u201d but that is optimistic merchandisers\u2019 hype.\u00a0 \u2018Rozanne\u2019 flourishes best and flowers most copiously in full sun.\u00a0 Light shade\u2014which is what the words \u201cpartial shade\u201d really mean on most plant tags–is OK if that is all you have.\u00a0 Every gardener, after all, has to play the hand that he or she has been dealt.<\/p>\n
\u2018Rozanne\u2019s origins are noteworthy.\u00a0 It began life as a seeding in an English garden, bearing a resemblance to what was probably one of its parent plants, Geranium wallichianum \u2018Buxton\u2019s Variety\u2019, which has similar flowers, foliage and growth habit.\u00a0 The seedling was a strong grower, with larger leaves and flowers than the parent.\u00a0 Eventually the gardeners, a couple named Donald and Rozanne Waterer, made contact with Adrian Bloom, a noted English horticulturist and plant breeder, who was also proprietor at the time of Blooms of Bressingham, a well-regarded nursery.\u00a0 The Waterer\u2019s seedling was propagated and trialed at the Blooms nursery and proved to be a great all-around garden plant. \u00a0It was introduced in 2000 and named after Rozanne Waterer.<\/p>\n
Since that time Mrs. Waterer\u2019s namesake has gone on to win multiple awards, not to mention the hearts of gardeners all over the world.\u00a0 It has won the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Award of Garden Merit for all-around garden performance and was named the Chelsea Flower Show\u2019s \u201cPlant of the Decade,\u201d an honor bestowed on a single plant introduced between 1993 and 2003.\u00a0 When the RHS celebrated its centenary in 2013, \u2018Rozanne\u2019 was named \u201cPlant of the Centenary\u2019 by RHS members.<\/p>\n
The American plant buying public has decided with its collective pocketbook, snapping up thousands of \u2018Rozanne\u2019 plants.\u00a0 A horticulture industry group, the Perennial Plant Association, selected the variety as its \u201cPlant of the Year\u201d in 2008.\u00a0\u00a0 While not as big a hit as the Knock Out rose or the \u2018Stella de Oro\u2019 daylily, \u2018Rozanne\u2019 shows up in a lot of places.<\/p>\n
My new \u2018Rozanne\u2019 is blooming right now, but that event was probably the result of intervention by a wholesale grower.\u00a0 Most people\u2019s plants will begin blooming in another couple of weeks, if the weather is warmish.\u00a0 The first flush of flowers is always the most impressive.\u00a0 When it is over, cut the plants back to keep them looking healthy and stimulate regrowth.\u00a0 Delicacy is not needed for the pruning job.\u00a0 I use hedge sheers on all my hardy geraniums and they respond with affection.<\/p>\n
Part \u2018Rozanne\u2019s allure is that it makes such a good companion.\u00a0 Blues and yellows are natural complements to each other and the blue geranium looks especially good with \u2018Moonbeam\u2019 coreopsis or one of the yellow-flowered yarrow or achillea.\u00a0 If you mix perennials and annuals, try it with yellow or peach-colored snapdragons.\u00a0 A plant named \u2018Rozanne\u2019 is especially fitting for a rose bed, where you might plant it at the feet of a really good yellow rose like \u2018Graham Thomas\u2019 or \u2018Golden Celebration\u2019.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, it combines nicely with pink flowers, not to mention white ones.\u00a0 In fact, I can\u2019t think of a color\u2014including vivid orange\u2014that would not work well with the blue of this geranium.<\/p>\n
Hardy geraniums are allegedly deer resistant, which is a blessing for people who live in deer-infested areas, especially if the deer in those areas are fond of reading catalog copy.\u00a0 I can say with some authority that my deer posse has not eaten any of the hardy geraniums, so the resistant description may actually be true.<\/p>\n
In any event, don\u2019t let \u2018Rozanne\u2019 get away.\u00a0 You never know when this particular worthy plant sensation may be displaced by a less worthy plant with a more aggressive publicist.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up in a town that was less than an hour\u2019s drive from Niagara Falls, but the only time we paid a call on that natural wonder was when we hosted visitors from England.\u00a0 In similar fashion, I have lived\u2014at least horticulturally speaking\u2014near the perennial \u00a0hardy geranium \u2018Rozanne\u2019 since its introduction in 2000, but … 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":[1351,1402,1401,1400,175,1107,122,1404,1403,891],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-rozanne","tag-adrian-bloom","tag-blooms-of-bressingham","tag-blue-flowered-plants","tag-cranesbills","tag-geranium-family","tag-hardy-geranium","tag-perennial-plant-of-the-year","tag-prize-winning-plants","tag-royal-horticultural-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","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=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}