Johnson's Blue Cranesbill

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. As a groundcover, space plants 2 ft. to 3 ft. apart, (closer for faster coverage). Control weeds with mulch until the plants cover the area.

A delightfully colored mounding perennial that cascades down embankments and off rock walls. Perfect for casual dry stream beds or mounding perennial borders. Works wonders in formal settings when massed between sheared hedges. Also good in pots, but best where it can mound around the base of posts, pillars and pedestals to soften the transition from horizontal to vertical.

This is a fast filler for Heath gardens while waiting for the similarly colored Purple Bell Heath (Erica cinerea 'Atropurpurea') and Maxwell's Cornish Heath (Erica vagans 'Mrs. D.F. Maxwell') to fill in. Combine with other rock-garden wonders like Rock Jasmine (Androsace lanuginosa) and Siskiyou Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa 'Siskiyou'), with its delicate pink flowers. Don't overlook others of its kind such as the showy Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum).

This hardy geranium was named for the Greek for crane because its seed pod resembles the long beak of that bird. The parent is Geranium maculatum, which is just one of thirty species native to North America. Most garden varieties are hybrids of this plant, and to a lesser extent the European G. cinereum, of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Though the South African pelargoniums are commonly known as geraniums, they are quite different plants from these hardy true geranium species and hybrids.