This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw wrapped up their deep dive into some of the colourful and resilient staples of the perennial garden with a look at a favourite of many, perennial geraniums, or cranesbills.

Tune in to learn more about perennial geraniums.

Matt and Joanne explain:

• the difference between hybrid, cultivar and variety; this is consistent across all the perennials discussed this month.
• how they are different plants from the annual geraniums or pelargoniums, the popular bedding plant.

Matt gives a great overview of :

• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: the type, when and for how long, and what colours to expect
• Their use and value to the perennial garden
• Cultivars of note for each plant, including, but not limited to:
  • Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium)
  • Geranium sanguineum (Bloody Cranesbill)
  • Geranium Rozanne

Check out Joanne's pictures of her Rozanne and the cuttings she shared with a neighbour in the past two years on the @downthegardenpathpodcast Instagram account.

Joanne and Matt answered listener questions about Rozanne: Is it invasive? Does it grow in the shade? Tune in to hear their answers to these questions and more!

Enjoy past perennial Down the Garden Path podcast episodes:

Intro to Perennials

Perennials: Peonies

Perennials: Groundcovers

Perennials: Ornamental Grasses

Perennials: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

Upcoming Shows:

July: A month dedicated to popular shrubs, including hydrangeas, ninebarks and weigela.

August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts

Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes.

As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.