Ingwersen's Variety Geranium Plants

Ingwersen's Variety

Not the easiest name, but Ingwersens Variety is a brilliant little cranesbill, or hardy geranium, which will slot happily into pretty much any spot in your garden without complaint.
From late spring to early summer it's covered in flowers, which bob daintily above mounds of handsome soft, lobed palmate leaves. Held on wiry deep-purple stems, they're saucer-shaped with five petals, and come in a range of soft pink shades, with handsomely contrasting deep pink-purple calyces. It really is a great and undemanding performer. Just water plants well until established. Remove faded blooms regularly to promote continuous flowering from early summer until autumn. Its charms don't end in the summer either: those evergreen leaves turn lovely autumnal shades in the latter part of the year. 

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In the garden

This lovely hardy geranium is a great groundcover plant, growing to around 50cm tall, so use it at the front of the border, where it will quickly knit together, spreading by rhizomes, to create a thick, luxurious mat of green. It's classed as a semi-evergreen, so it will be in leaf all year round, except over the harshest of winters. However, perhaps the best thing about this brilliant cranesbill is that it's perfectly happy in shade, even dry shade once established. So plant it around your shade-loving viburnums and hostas, or mix it in with ferns, pulmonarias and other low-light-tolerant plants, keep it well-watered during the first year, and it will brighten up those north or east-facing borders with ease and a considerable amount of cachet. If you have problems with rabbits, you'll be delighted to know that this gorgeous perennial is rated as 'rabbit resistant'.

Features

• Colour: pale to mid pink
• Flowering: Apr-May
• Foliage: semi-evergreen; soft, rounded mid-green and scented
• Height: 50cm
• Spread: 60cm
• Spacing: 50cm
• Position: sun, semi-shade or shade
• Soil: any
• Awards: RHS Award of Garden Merit

Did you know?

This geranium is named after legendary Danish/German plantsman Walter Ingwersen, who looked after the gardens at RHS Wisley during the war and penned The Genus Geranium in 1946. Ingwersen's Variety is also known as 'big-root' geranium, as it has the thickest, most tuberous roots of all the hardy geraniums. 

Dig in some garden compost or leaf mould when planting, in sun or shade, in borders or pots. Space around 50-60cm apart and water in well. Keep watered until established. Deadhead spent flowers to encourage more blooms.