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Geranium sanguineum |
 |
| | 'Album' |
| 
| | 'Max Frei' |
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| | the plain species |
| Common name |
cranesbill |
| Family |
geraniaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial |
| Flowers |
magenta;white |
| Size |
6-12 inches |
| Light |
full sun-part shade |
| Cultural notes |
average garden soil with good drainage |
Perennial whose gracefully billowing foliage clumps to 12 inches tall, slowly spreading. Magenta (the species) or white ('album') flowers in late spring cover the plant entirely. Tough, versatile plant. Our most recent addition is 'Max Frei', a diminutive cultivar with deep pink flowers and shiny leaves.
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| | 'Max Frei' pleasantly weaving through other perennials |
| 
| | 'Striatum' has darker veins on pale pink petals |
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| | Deep-green, elegant foliage, cut more deeply and with softer edges than most cranesbills |
| 
| | On 'Max Frei', the foliage lacks the second level of cut |
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We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston. Read about all the cranesbills in our garden on my geraniums page About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Geranium sanguineum
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Janet DG | May 12, 2006 | Seeing as you seem to be particular about identification (which I thoroughly approve), the white variety is album, not alba, to go with GeraniUM. Thanks again for your great website.
Fixed - thanks! |
| Malinda Cassidy | Aug 27, 2009 | I grew up in the bushveld - Northam. I remember quite a large flower bed in our garden with very tall, red gerniums, and have been trying to find another plant to no avail. Can you help? These plants flowered copiously and must have been 1m+ tall. I would love to plant some in the flower boxes surrounding the verandah of our Portuguese cuisine restaurant in Brooklyn Pretoria. Thanks!
I don't know - but perhaps someone else will come by and have an idea. |
| Jeff P. | Mar 29, 2010 | Max Frei is a great geranium, it is a well-behaved cultivar that blooms and blooms. |
| Melanie Hamilton | May 01, 2011 | I have several of these in a flower bed next to a rock wall. Some of them are getting tall and bushy like they should but others are growing wide and flat. Last year they all were flat like that. I think the difference is that I harshly trimmed back some of them and those are the ones that are getting taller and bushy now. Could it have been my pruning that helped them look better? If so when should I do that with the rest of them? Can I do that in the spring or should I wait till fall?
I would cut back either in mid-fall or early spring. |
| Sharon Taylor | Jul 19, 2011 | I am searching for the name of a very cupped, wine/pink/rose (all on the same plant), sprawling geranium . Can't remember the leaf unfortunately. Looks something like Max but quite cupped with flowers of many levels of colour intensity. It was different from all my cranesbills familiar and very beautiful! Apparently flowers all summer til frost.Help! |
| la gata | Aug 07, 2014 | i prefer "album' because it reminds me of art garfunkel. |
| Marsha | Jun 24, 2015 | if I cut back my max frei after blooms have faded in late June, will it bloom again?
It's possible. I rarely have time to deadhead, and haven't tried with this geranium. |
| Mary | Apr 29, 2016 | Can I move my geranium sanguieum now in may ?
Not a problem. Just keep it watered for a few weeks. |
- Seed for var. striatum from '12 garden. Baggy 70F (100%G, 22-26d)
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