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| I have a huge - at least this year it's huge - Cranesbill that looks like Sanguineum, The Species. I'm guessing the clump is at least 2 feet tall and about 3 and a half feet across. It's taking over a large area, smothering other plants around it, and it self-seeds EVERYWHERE. I even find seedlings in areas that are not that close to where it's growing.
I'd like to purchase a smaller variety that is long-blooming, stays more compact, and will not produce as many volunteers. Color is really not an issue, but length of blooming season is. Do you grow any Cranesbill that fit my description and that you can recommend?
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Wed, Jun 15, 11 at 19:52
| How about 'Biokovo' |
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- Posted by aftermidnight Z8 V. Island B.C. (My Page) on Wed, Jun 15, 11 at 20:59
| Another vote for 'Biokovo', some others, Pink Spice, Ballerina, Laurence Flatman, renardii, Pink Penny, Cambridge and Elke. |
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| I think you will love Orkney Cherry ~ early & continuous bloomer until Nov in my zone. The mound is much smaller than both my Biokovo & Striated Sanguineum! |
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| I just got Biokova this last fall. I really like it. It makes a very neat mound. I don't see it spreading or flopping the way my sanguineum and Johnson's Blue do. |
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| Geraniums vary enormously in their growth habits. 'Brookside' is billowy, 'Dilys' has a very small footprint, but sends out long non-rooting runners to make a nice groundcover. 'Biokovo', 'Karmina' and their larger, straight species relative G. maccrorhizum, spread slowly from long rhizomes. 'Rozanne' is a twiner, twining into other plants in a lovely fashion. G. sanguineum proved such a pest for me in its shooting seeds that I dug it all out last year. For a real selection, check out the nursery Geraniaceae. If they don't have it, it probably doesn't exist. |
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| Biokovo is a lovely slowly expanding mound well suited as a ground cover. It will politely snuggle up to it's neighbors in time, but not overwhelm them. Any unwanted over growth is easily controlled. It does well in sun and mostly shade. The foliage is evergreen and smells of pine. You have a choice of white flowers "Biokovo" or pink flowers "Biokovo Karmina". Now the drawback...it's bloom time is rather short at about maybe 10 days at most. Bloom is profuse and to tidy it up you will want to remove the expended bloom stems. They are easily pulled when the tops have dried for a couple of weeks. In the pic below, all the green between the flowering plants in the bed is Biokovo.
In this pic Biokovo and B. Karmina in bloom after all the other blooming plants in the first pic are done.
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| Thank you all so much for responding. You've given me some research to do. laceyvail, I'll be checking out the nursery you mentioned. gazania, I was hoping for a longer bloom time than what you mentioned for Biokovo. But, that being said, I love the pink color. Again, thanks, and I'll keep watching this thread to see if anyone else has more feedback on Cranesbill for me! |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Thu, Jun 16, 11 at 18:21
| Johnson's Blue is a horrible flopper for me, I shovel pruned it. I love Rozanne but she does travel and twine around. Biokovo was new to me last summer but it bloomed a lot longer than ten days. It has been blooming now for two weeks so I'll see how long it goes. I just bought Karmina but they are tiny so no blooms yet. |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Sun, Jun 26, 11 at 13:55
| My 'Biokovo' still blooming... |
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| Another vote for 'Biokovo'. Mine bloom 2 weeks, give or take a day or two. I have it growing under a mature sugar maple as a carpet. Love it! Also; it's evergreen as a nice bonus. The flowers hold up to heavy spring rains too. Another favorite is the variegated G. maccrorhizum. I use it as skirting under limbed up shrubs & it blooms heavily in the shade. Flowers are the same as the nonvariegated. Got them from Bluestone 3 years ago. /tricia |
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| "A.T.Johnson" is silvery pink and blooms off and on all summer. My biggest clump is 2 feet across and,in flower, 2 feet tall. It is very tough. Small divisions weathered a hot spell and a week of rain with out flagging. It really goes with everything except orange. I have never seen it at a bricks & mortar nursery. Geranacae and Lazy S sell it. I highly recommend it. It will do well in your zone. I also have bivoko and b.karmina. It is a lovely graceful plant that really puts on a show for two -three weeks. It gets double points for being an effective groundcover that does not look tatty. I have a sea of g.macrorizzum 'spessart' in dry shade. Lovely in bloom, but only 2-3 weeks. It looks a little sad by August. But is is a wonderful plant. Too few people use geraniums as groundcovers. I know you want long blooming and that's Rozanne hands down. But she has territory issues; not aggressive but let's say not everyone appreciates a plant that acts like a down comforter all summer. Marie |
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| I have Rozanne, and agree that she goes EVERYWHERE, and even covers things up. I also have Jolly Bee, her twin, and it's in an area where it can roam to its hearts content. which it does. Jolly Bee is still in bloom here when the frost kills it. I will look at A.T.Johnson. The plant I want to replace the species Sanguineum with needs to be short enough for the front of the border. And, I was hoping for a longer bloom time than 2 or 3 weeks. Rebloom later in the summer would work too. I gave my neighbor my Bloody Cranesbill, which I could get back, but it has a short bloom time. I like the height of it, though. Thanks again for all of the suggestions, |
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