Erodium manescavii has to be one of my favourite plants! It will flower almost anywhere, from full sun to full shade, in any soil – moist or dry – and doesn’t even need to be deadheaded in order to keep on producing the lovely magenta/purple flowers! This normally starts blooming around May/June time here, and is still going strong now in October! The foliage is always lovely and green and healthy too!
The flowers do of course resemble those of geraniums, which is the clue to the fact they are members of said family – Geraniaceae! Most of us who grow hardy Geraniums will know how tough they can be, and this family member is no exception! I like to grow this with Deschampsias (cespitosa ‘Pixie Fountain’ which will be available for sale next year) – lovely shorter growing grasses, as the flowers weave through nicely and show off the seed heads to their advantage – these grasses tend to flower in the summer months! Sorry no picture at the moment!
They are very hardy clump-forming perennials, which apparently can self seed, but they have never done so here! Maintenance of these plants is minimal, I dead head and clean up plants in late autumn or early spring – they repay you with at least 5 to 6 months of lovely flowers which will grow to approx 16″ x 16″ height & spread!
