Geranium pratense Summer Skies

The Summer Skies perennial Geranium pratense is a wonderful variety of Meadow Cranesbill. This vigorous perennial offers exquisite double flowers in June-July, beautiful like tiny roses, with a light blue-mauve color touched with pink at the center, flowers that are abundantly produced and remain beautiful for several days before fading. Its elegant, finely cut foliage takes on beautiful bronze shades in autumn and persists as small rosettes in winter. To offer such flowering, the plant requires space, fertile soil that remains moist until August, drier afterwards, and a well-sunny exposure in the morning. A true jewel to offer to a romantic or English garden!

Floriferous, generous, easy to grow, perennial geraniums have everything to please. Especially since, unlike Balcony Geraniums (which are actually Pelargoniums) with which they are sometimes confused, they are perfectly hardy, at least down to -15°C (5°F), and therefore remain in the ground all winter.

Native to Europe, Central Asia, and China and belonging to the Geraniaceae family, Geranium pratense is the origin of many cultivars with single or double flowers, generally very easy to grow in any good garden soil. The 'Summer Skies' variety, originally obtained in England but patented in the USA in 1997, is a remarkable cultivar for its vigor, floribundity, and the beauty of its double flowers. The plant forms a large clump with an average height of 60 cm (24in) and almost the same width. Its flowers are precious and refined: 2-3 cm (1in) wide, rose-shaped, composed of two rows of slightly undulated light lavender-mauve petals. The center of the flower is occupied by a small pink-violet bud that releases a small yellow heart when fully open. Its flowering, very recurrent if care is taken to remove faded flowers, usually takes place in June-July. Then the plant enters a rest phase in August, without requiring watering. The foliage is deciduous, composed of small polygonal, finely cut, medium green leaves, measuring 20 cm (8in) long, almost all along the robust and villous stems. It takes on a lovely bronze color in autumn.

The 'Summer Skies' perennial Geranium is a rewarding plant if one knows how to anticipate its desires: good garden soil enriched with compost, kept moist during its flowering period, and a gently sunny position will suffice for its happiness and that of the gardener who welcomes it in their garden. When it enters its rest phase, it no longer has any requirements and can tolerate drier soil. Its undeniable beauty competes without complex with the best varieties ofHellebores, and the softest ground cover roses. In the garden, perennial geraniums can be planted almost anywhere: in a rockery, in a woodland setting with Ferns andWoodrushes, near Roses which they charmingly dress the base, in a border with other varieties ofdouble-flowered Geraniums, and even in pots.