Geranium Cantabrigiense Biokovo

If you want a pink, delicate and girlie geranium - then try G. Cantabrigiense Biokovo it's a real sweetie.

It is low growing (about 10-20cm tall) so, makes great ground cover. It gently spreads itself, but it isn't a thug, you'll find it easy to keep under control.

We bought a couple of small pots from a garden centre because we noticed that of all the plants around, the bees were choosing this one.

Incoming!

From those two small pots we've increased to two patches in our raised bed (to make it easy to dead head them to prolong its flowering period), a patch on the green roof and a few pots for our neighbour.

Last autumn I gave up on our strawberries - when I realised that the local squirrel was eating more of them than we were. So, the strawberry towers were emptied and filled with this little pink geranium. It has looked great for weeks.

Ken Muir strawberry tower

Seeds are starting to develop (top) with flower buds 

A bit raggedy - you can clearly see scratch marks on the petals from the bees claws

 

Of course the flowers fade eventually, but that isn't the end. If it is looking a bit leggy you could give it a trim, however you shouldn't be too hasty. The leaves turn from green to beautiful autumnal colours - it can happen almost as soon as it stops flowering, but even if it doesn't, it is worth the wait. 

The final gift from this great little geranium is the smell. The flowers don't have much of a scent. But the leaves have a gentle lemony smell which is released if you brush against the foliage or do the dead heading.

Green leaves will turn autumnal once flowering is done

Geranium Cantabrigiense Biokovo is named after Mount Biokovo in Croatia, where in 1990 the plant was discovered as a natural spontaneous hybrid.