Product Description

Hardy geraniums were the first plants to shrug off the rigours of her coastal climate and grow in Birgitte Husted Bendtsen's garden every bit as well as they did in the fertile, sheltered plots further east in Denmark. Add to this their tolerance of dogs and children, resistance to pests and diseases, interesting foliage, and delightful flowers in a wide range of colours, and it is little surprise that Birgitte developed an insatiable passion for them. In this book, she shares her knowledge of cultivating the plants and highlights the most garden worthy species and varieties. Expert cultivation advice, including comments on soil preferences and hardiness, is followed by fascinating information on pollination, and failsafe propagation secrets. Captivating colour photographs display key characteristics of hardy geraniums including their legendary range of flower colour and intricate, often highly marked, foliage. Here readers may marvel at the many cultivars of Geranium x oxonianum, enjoy favorites like Geranium 'Ann Folkard' with its striking black eye against magenta background, and covet the fine-leaved, blue-flowering Geranium himalayense. Smaller varieties ideal for growing in rockeries, containers and troughs are described along with perfect geraniums for associating with roses of all colours. Birgitte Husted Bendtsen communicates like a true enthusiast and the text is peppered with interesting anecdotes including news of an exciting variety that is prized for its blue flowers and modest stature. With over 400 species and hybrids of hardy geraniums and 450 beautiful colour photographs, this book is both rich in information and beautiful to browse. It is a long-awaited reference that will delight seasoned enthusiasts and introduce a whole new generation of gardeners to the charms of the hardy geranium.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #710853 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: Danish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780881927160
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Review
"A first-class reference book describing over 400 geraniums, including many of the latest cultivars. The photographs are excellent, detailing both flowers and leaves for quick and easy identification of plants, the descriptions clear and concise."—Sue Tasker, Professional Gardener, April 2006 (Sue Tasker Professional Gardner )

"Avid gardeners with a passion for geraniums will relish Gardening with Hardy Geraniums as [an] in-depth survey of geranium varieties."—Bookwatch, August 2005 (Bookwatch )

"The faultless photography offers a botanist's ideal of blossom and leaf varieties. ... This spectacular work should find a place on library shelves and in the hands of home gardeners and horticulturists."—Mary Ellen Snodgrass, American Reference Books Annual, March 2006 (Mary Ellen Snodgrass American Reference Books Annual )

A first-class reference book describing over 400 geraniums, including many of the latest cultivars. The photographs are excellent, detailing both flowers and leaves for quick and easy identification of plants, the descriptions clear and concise.Sue Tasker, Professional Gardener, April 2006 (Professional Gardner )

Avid gardeners with a passion for geraniums will relish Gardening with Hardy Geraniums as [an] in-depth survey of geranium varieties.Bookwatch, August 2005 (Bookwatch )

The faultless photography offers a botanist's ideal of blossom and leaf varieties. ... This spectacular work should find a place on library shelves and in the hands of home gardeners and horticulturists.Mary Ellen Snodgrass, American Reference Books Annual, March 2006 (American Reference Books Annual )

About the Author
Birgitte Husted Bendtsen first became interested in hardy geraniums as a young member of the Jutland Garden Society in her native Denmark. Once hooked, she resolved to learn more, and she now holds a comprehensive collection. A skilled photographer and gifted writer, Birgitte Husted Bendtsen contributes articles on a range of gardening subjects.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Species and Hybrids

Isn't it amazing that bees can definitely distinguish between a geranium and a salvia, or another flower in the garden, when I consider how long it took me to learn to recognise the most common garden plants?

But bees do not always distinguish between species within the same genus. So a bee may transfer pollen from one species to another, making it possible for two species of cranesbill to be crossed with one another and form a hybrid. If the hybrid is found in a garden where several species of geranium grow, you cannot know which are the "parents". If a plant has appeared in a group of self-sown geraniums, perhaps you can tell which is the "mother" but not the "father". Such hybrids are therefore simply called Geranium followed by a name that says nothing of the species involved, for example Geranium 'Spinners' or G. 'Ann Folkard'. The name can be chosen by the owner of the plant or the nursery launching the plant.

In a few individual cases, where two species often cross, botanists have chosen to give the progeny a common "surname". You then call the seedlings Geranium × one or another name that has been adopted, which refers to the relevant crossed species. For example, it has been decided that all geraniums that have G. versicolor and G. endressii as parents are to be called G. ×oxonianum. One of the most common cranesbills in Danish gardens is of this type, namely G. ×oxonianum 'Rose Clair'.

Geranium versicolor and G. endressii will, when planted close to each other, have many "children" together. It is questionable whether it is possible to purchase pure species of these two geraniums. In any case, it is pretty certainly an oxonianum geranium that hides behind the name G. endressii at nurseries. Geranium sanguineum, the bloody cranesbill, on the other hand, almost never crosses with other species. This is because G. sanguineum has 84 chromosomes, whereas the majority of other geraniums have 28.

In nature, the obstacle in forming hybrids is not just a difference in the number of chromosomes. There is often what we call a geographical obstacle due to the fact that species grow on opposite sides of the world. In the garden, things are a little different. Here, we have plants from North America growing next to plants from the Himalayas. Many hybrids have thus been created in gardens.

However, many of the hybrids are sterile and cannot form seeds. A familiar example is G. 'Johnson's Blue', which for the same reason flowers for a long period. It constantly "waits" for pollination and fertilization and continues to form flowers.

In order to see which species are closely related to each other, scientists, particularly at the University of Cambridge, England, have tried to cross many different species of Geranium. Nursery people and gardeners have also worked on the same task, but here the aim has been to create good garden plants. As a taxonomist at the University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Peter Yeo, has worked on the classification of the genus Geranium. He has written up the work in his book Hardy Geraniums.

A gardener in the Isles of Orkney, Scotland, has become world famous for his geranium hybrids. His name is Alan Bremner, and from him we have G. 'Anne Thomson', G. ×cantabrigiense 'St. Ola', G. 'Chantilly', G. 'Natalie' and G. 'Patricia', among others.

The individual species of Geranium often vary in the wild. A species that generally has cyclamen red flowers may suddenly pop up in the wild in a version with white or pink flowers. When plants that are deviations of a species are cultivated, they are given the species name followed by a registered cultivar name, for example G. sanguineum 'Cedric Morris' or G. himalayense 'Irish Blue'.

Propagating Hardy Geraniums

Your garden will never look better than it will next year! By then, you will have planted even more of your favourite flowers. You also know just how you want the garden to look. Most cranesbills are easy to propagate, so you can have as many of your favourites as you want.

Some cranesbills can be sown to produce plants with the same genes as the mother plant. These are described as coming true to seed. Hybrids are never true to seed. Their progeny's genes vary, so some plants resemble one of the hybrid's parents, some the other, while others resemble the hybrid itself. It is said that the progeny have split. In many cases hybrids are sterile, which means they do not form seeds. It could also be that the hybrid does form seeds, which germinate, but the progeny are unable to survive.

Sowing

Geranium seeds are wonderfully large, so they can be handled individually. I get seeds from the various societies I belong to, or from some of the larger seed firms. Naturally, you can also harvest your own seeds in your garden.

I sow the seeds in February, and the pots are left outside in all types of weather; after all in the wild there is nobody to bring them in. I use large pots to make sure that the seeds do not dry out if I don't attend to them for a while. As the seeds should not be soaking wet the whole time either, I make sure there is plenty of drainage in the pots to prevent them from rotting. The seed compost, which I buy in bags, is mixed with horticultural sand, grit or vermiculite, or I use diatomaceous earth. Around a quarter of the seed compost is drainage material. Remember to make a note of what you have sown in the pot; you never remember as well as you think. I myself write on the pot itself so there is nothing to be blown away, as sometimes happens with a label.

In order to prevent birds picking at the pots, I place a net over them. I use one of the fine nets that protect my carrots against carrot fly in summer. Once the seedlings have developed their first permanent leaves, after the seed leaves, you can transplant them.

Some seeds are unwilling to sprout. You can help them on their way by cutting a small hole in the thickest end of the seed with nail clippers. The hard seed shells will then be permeable to water, which starts the process of germination.

As already mentioned, hybrids are never true to seed, but if you restrict yourself to sowing species, you can generally count on getting seedlings that are of the same species as the plant that supplied the seeds. Although you can be virtually assured that, for example, you will get a himalayense geranium when you sow seeds from G. himalayense 'Gravetye' or another variety of G. himalayense, be aware that there is a chance you will get a new, exciting hybrid.

Often you can identify hybrids as early as the pricking out stage, as many differ from their siblings in the pot by having yellow or variegated leaves.

Examples of geraniums that easily form hybrids are G. endressii and G. versicolor. Where these species are found growing close to one other, you cannot count on getting either species true through sowing. Other examples of geraniums that sometimes form hybrids with each other are G. phaeum and G. reflexum, and similarly G. pratense can cross with G. collinum or G. clarkei. Geranium traversii and G. argenteum also cross easily with G. ×oxonianum and G. cinereum respectively.

Division and basal cuttings

Most geraniums are easy to divide into smaller pieces with green tops and roots, just as we split other perennials. A perennial geranium has a rhizome with roots. New leaves will push through from this rhizome in spring. Some geraniums, for example G. pratense and G. psilostemon, have thick and woody rhizomes and roots so the plants are difficult to divide. For these you can use a different method. You can take cuttings from low down, in the soil, when the plant has just broken through. These cuttings are known as basal cuttings. Cut off a new shoot just below the soil surface using a sharp knife. The plant does not need to be lifted, so this method causes minimal damage.

The basal cuttings are potted and kept moist. Do not place them in direct sunlight, but protect them in a greenhouse, a cold frame or under a plastic cover. Remember in the latter case to ensure the cuttings get plenty of ventilation to prevent them from rotting. After three to five weeks, the cuttings will have developed roots.

Sometimes you may be lucky enough to get a shoot with a little root on it. An idiot-proof cutting of this kind is known as an "Irishman's cutting".

Underground stems

In certain cases geraniums spread by means of rhizomes that extend horizontally underground, and often store nutrients for the plant. The rhizomes also have buds from which new shoots can develop.

Many cranesbills have such horizontal rhizomes, and this type of cranesbill is very easy to propagate. You only need to take a piece of the rhizome and pot it, but you must make sure that the piece has a bud.

You should not take too small a piece, as there will not be enough nutrients to sustain a new plant, The thinner the rhizome, the longer the piece you need to use. A 7–8 cm length is necessary from G. himalayense, for example, while G. phaeum has such thick rhizomes that less is required.

The picture at the top of the page shows various types of rhizomes. Geranium phaeum has very thick rhizomes that lie just below the surface of the soil, while G. himalayense has long, thin rhizomes. Geranium sanguineum has highly budded rhizomes, and G. macrorrhizum produces many rhizomes above the ground.

In some plants, sections of the rhizomes can be exceedingly swollen with nutrients. These swollen sections are called tube...

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Customer Reviews

Superb!
I already owned the well-known books on hardy geraniums by Trevor Bath / Joy Jones and Peter Yeo when this new book was published, so at first I hesitated a little before buying yet another book about this increasingly popular garden plant. I have not regretted buying it. I would't want to be without the other two books but the newcomer has a lot to offer: You will find many new cultivars that were unknown to the other authors; it's interesting to compare the experiences of someone gardening in Denmark, where climatic conditions are tougher, to those of English gardeners; there is a fascinating chapter on a leading Dutch breeder of geraniums; you'll find excellent chapters on cultivation and propagation, illustrated with useful pictures; there are 450 brilliant photographs, among them close-ups of flowers and leaves, so you can compare them handily, but also of whole plants and borders, so you get the "micro-perspective" as well as the "macro-perspective"; and, last not least, the author shows real passion when writing, very competently and wittily, about gardening with geraniums. If you are looking for a systematic and scientific monograph about cranesbills, you are better served with Peter Yeo's standard work (2nd edition), but if you are gardening and as crazy about geraniums as I am - then you can't do without this book!

Wow! Incredibly informative and a good read too!
In my garden planning, I keep running across stunning and adorable hardy geraniums. I got this book on a lark, and based on previous reviews, to get a little more information such as "will these actually look as nice in MY garden" and "are they as hardy as advertised"... I have read this book cover to cover since I got it a few days ago--the author is outstanding, showing a true passion for gardening and gardening using geraniums. She is entertaining and explains each of the variations/hybrids simply and thoroughly. This is the first gardening book I have read and finally "gotten" the latin names, understanding the characteristics of each of 'these' parents produces offspring having 'those' features. I know that's not a hard concept, but sorting through garden catalogs, garden stores, etc. I guess I'd get jaded and set my planning aside for a while. Birgitte explains the features of each kind of geranium and their best uses and placement (will this one work in a rock garden or only woodland settings?), as well as having a great photo of most every flower and some of their leaves to show the many variations and combinations. Many of the plants I have seen just recently on-line are included in this book, which made me pretty happy. I learned that Geranium 'Anne Folkard' may not survive a cold, damp winter unless I take extra care and shelter it a little, and G. pratense Midnight Reiter may not grow as fast as I would have liked it too to fill in the area where I wanted to place it.

After reading "Gardening with Hardy Geraniums", I am taking this book with me to the garden stores, with my slightly revised list, so if I see something else that calls out to me, I can look it up and know a heckova lot more than on the little plant tag. I wish more plant-specific books were more like this one--really interesting and informative without being just a list of plants with the same information on the plant tags.

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Plenty of gardeners associate geraniums with potted plants which have a long flowering period: Gardening With Hardy Geraniums shows there's many more varieties available - over 400 in all - which are good garden cultivars. Over 400 photos cover the characteristics which distinguish them, from color to flower shape, while accompany summaries cover height, propagation, season, and background history. Avid gardeners with a passion for geraniums will relish Gardening With Hardy Geraniums as in-depth survey of geranium varieties. Timber Press is a premier publisher of books for gardening and landscaping. Send for their free catalog for a complete listing of their superb titles.