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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
The Perennial Plant Association of North
America named Geranium Rozanne
the 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year.
At Bressingham in July, Adrian Bloom, the
son of its founder, went one step further,
calling it “the perennial of the millenium”.
Officially recognised in 2000, it was a
cross of two blue geraniums, G. himalayense
and G. wallichianum ‘Buxton’s Variety’,
growing in Donald and Rozanne Waterer’s
garden in Somerset.
Its violet-blue flowers
with purply-violet veins
and small white centres
can be 6cm (two-and-ahalf
inches) across. The
plant grows to 48cm (20”)
in height and slightly more
in spread. With marbled,
dark green foliage which
turns reddish brown it
can be used in many
ways – mass planting, in
containers, window boxes and hanging
baskets, as a border specimen, for ground
cover or, as Bloom himself has done in his
display gardens in the USA, as ‘rivers of
Rozanne’ flowing through the beds.
Rozanne is a true perennial geranium, not a pelargonium; it is hardy, not prey to insects or
disease, and needs little care. It will tolerate heat and drought and thrive in full sun, though it
prefers to have some shade and moist, well-drained soil. Blooming abundantly all summer
through, from May to the first frost, it grows vigorously but does not sprawl, and seldom needs
dividing: it can be sheared back to three inches or so to put more life into it if the flowers or the
foliage show signs of flagging in the summer heat. To limit its spread, the side stems can be
trimmed back.
Justifiably popular, Rozanne has its own website, www.geraniumrozanne.com.
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