Geranium maculatum, Wild Geranium, quart pot

Geranium maculatum, Wild Geranium

FS-PS, Zone 3, blooms April - May, 1-1.5’ x 1’-1.5’, medium to medium dry, sand to some clay.

This lovely woodland plant does well in most soils. Its foliage is beautiful! Useful for difficult dry shade conditions, it’s a clump-forming perennial which produces a profusion of upward-facing, saucer-shaped, pale lilac-pink flowers, adorned with a creamy-white center and faint veins. I am always excited to see these lovlies in the spring. It blooms for 6-7 weeks from late spring to early summer and sometimes reblooms in the fall. This hardy geranium is reliable and easy to grow. It’s said that the foliage dies back or yellows towards the fall, but ours has usually stayed green.

This plant has evolved a unique way to reseed itself. A seed pod that resembles a crane’s bill forms and when it dries, it catapults away from the plant. Each seed has a tiny tail that is humidity-sensitive. The tail bends and moves in response to moisture which helps drive it into the soil, to better germinate (see photo).

Attracts a wide range of native bees, honeybees, butterflies and moths. It’s seeds are relished by mourning doves. It is the host plant for 25 species of moths and butterflies!