A bold blooming Blue Geranium
2008 Perennial Plant of the Year

Each year, the Perennial Plant Association selects a hardy perennial to enter in the flower hall of fame.

Nominees must conform to the following criteria: low maintenance, pest and disease resistance, adaptability to a wide variety of climactic conditions, showiness across seasons, and availability to the public.

The ballots for this year's nominees have been counted, and Cranesbill geranium Rozanne is the 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year.

The cultivar was hybridized in the English garden of Donald and Rozanne Waterer in 1989. The hybrid is the result of a cross between Geranium himalayense and Geranium wallichianum Buxton's Variety. Not to be confused with Pelargonium, the popular red annual of the summer, Rozanne is a cranesbill geranium and more closely related to the wild pink cranesbill seen along roadsides and in lawns each spring. The name 'cranesbill' refers to the shape of the seed pod.

Rozanne's saucershaped, two- and- a- half inch violet- blue flowers with white eyes and reddish veins bloom from late spring until frost. One 20 inch high plant can spread 24- 28 inches. The leaves turn red in the fall, and the deep green foliage lightly marbled with chartreuse makes an excellent mounding ground cover.

Cranesbill geranium 'Rozanne' continuously blooms from late spring until frost.

Geranium Rozanne is a jewel in sunny borders, on banks or raised beds, in pots, window boxes and hanging baskets. The plant can be a filler between hostas, roses, daylilies, and grasses. The blue becomes iridescent when bedded next to yellow coreopsis, rudbeckia, or solidago.

As a low maintenance perennial, it seldom needs dividing, can be rejuvenated mid- season by pruning it back three inches. It prefers full sun or afternoon shade, tolerates heat and humidity, succeeds in 5.5- 6.5 pH soil, and requires good drainage. In addition to being disease and pest resistant, deer and rabbits don't mess with Rozanne, but butterflies are readily attracted to her charms.

The plant is patented so one cannot reproduce the hybrid asexually without written authorization by the patent holder. To order the bold nonstop blooming blue geranium for your garden, visit www.plantdelights.com or www.waysidegardens.com.