Geranium wlassovianum / Siberian Cranesbill

6/19/13

Geranium wlassovianum

I planted a patch of this pretty clumping cranesbill in 2010 at the curve of the walk on the north side.

The emerging new foliage is bronzy  and the fall foliage is a bright red and purple color, very striking.

The flowers are dusky violet blooms with a white eye, not very showy, but sweet close up as you round the walk.

With all geraniums, if the center gets woody and open, dig it up and divide, discard the center.

6/28/10

I divided and got quite a few from the first three plants in the first year.  It's a good spreading groundcover that smothers weeds.

10/17/10

This geranium has pretty little purple flowers, but it’s the fall color that surprised me. Gorgeous glowing red, and late afternoon sunlight in fall hits that edge of the walk around the corner, lighting it up.

10/17/10

8/20/10

They get out of hand quickly and need quite a bit of trimming each summer to keep them from overtaking the walk.

8/17/11

6/27/12  So shy and sweet in bloom

8/2/12

I let them bloom on all summer in 2012, and did not shear them back until very late in the season. By the time I did, I ended up with a lot of open brown areas, and the fall color, while spectacularly red, had lots of gaping open areas with the bare stems showing.  I need to make sure I keep these tidier during the summer.

10/16/12

They come in as tidy clumps in early spring, then spread to really cover the curve of the walk with long running stems.

4/25/13

I was more diligent about shearing them back in mid summer to promote more growth by fall, but the autumn look was still one of bare stems, not much foliage and poor color. They have not turned that glowing garnet red since 2010.

9/29/13

Still, they are a good groundcover, no weeds grow through them, and at times they are a nice contrast with lighter foliage (such as the caryopteris divaricata above) and other plants.

8/8/14 top  and  9/24/14 bottom

7/16/15

Fall color was good in 2015, but I haven't mastered when to shear back the plants to keep them full late in the season -- so the nice red leaves were mixed in with a lot of spent brown foliage and it didn't look great.