This is probably a stupid question, but.... Are Wargrave Pink (Hardy Geranium) a weed?

This is probably a stupid question, but.... Are Wargrave Pink (Hardy Geranium) a weed? Would it be a sin to dig it up? After reading up on it, I thought the ground-covering Geranium helped prevent weeds from growing in flowering beds?

Long story short, I came across a blog post after googling Geranium x oxonianum. I'm confused because garden centres sell the specimen. Is it a weed as the blog suggests? And is Geranium endressi a weed? Unfortunately, I think I might have dug up some Geranium endressi or Geranium x oxonianum from under a rose bush mistaking it for a weed (Dove’s foot cranesbill or Herb robert). Doh!

 

How do @icehockeyuk ..IMHO I don't believe War graves pink is a weed,it's a good do'er...it can run rampant but easy enough to chop a lump off

 

@icehockeyuk First I would post some clearer pictures on your original identification thread, there are many species and varieties of geranium and some can be extremely hard to distinguish from one another. I think Marley advised you yesterday to hold your camera further away from the plant, try that. Most cameras have an option to zoom into a photo you've already taken and save the image as displayed on your screen, that's what I do when struggling to focus on a flower properly.

Hope this helps,

Nick

 

Hi Nick,

I took some clearer pictures earlier today, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading them to my computer. Will keep trying. I've done some digging on the internet and I'm 99 percent sure it's a Geranium endressii upon further inspection. The shape of the petals were not rounded as you pointed out. I came across older threads on here asking the same question posting identical pictures. Hypothetically speaking, if the geranium is a Geranium endressi would it be a school boy error to treat it like a weed? Unfortunately, I wish I posed the question on here first before digging!

 

Depends if you like it @icehockeyuk. A weed is just a plant in the wrong place! It's not particularly invasive and is an excellent ground cover geranium. You'll still probably get the odd weed coming through, but not many of them. I actually have endressi at my allotment with this one, bees love them both.

Geranium x johnsonii 'Johnson's Blue' | cranesbill 'Johnson's Blue'/RHS Gardening

Nick

 

Just posted some more photos in my original thread. I would love to get your opinion.

To be honest, I originally thought they were weeds with pink flowers. I guess the clumps of green leaves are a bit misleading. So, I dug them up. I also found them in some unusual places. For instance, in a vegtable patch. It also was smoothering some other plants throughout the garden. It was hard to identify the other plants because it was overpowering. It reinforced my belief that it was a weed. Technically, could it be classified as a weed?

The area besides the rose looks pretty empty now. I started wondering if I made a mistake. Were the pink geranium's supposed to be there. What are the odds they were planted there on purpose to be ground cover? The roots were pretty deep. In a nut shell, I wanted to try to restore the garden to it's original state, but I'm unsure if the pink gernanium's were part of the original design. The pink flowers help give the garden a Cottage garden scheme.

 

@icehockeyuk It's all about what makes you happy really, if you like them keep them where you want them and dig them up where you don't! If you want a cottage garden style then hardy geraniums are perfect. I also have these...

Geranium 'Blue Cloud' | cranesbill 'Blue Cloud'/RHS Gardening

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' | cranesbill 'Biokovo'/RHS Gardening

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Karmina' | cranesbill 'Karmina'/RHS Gardening

Geranium phaeum | dusky cranesbill/RHS Gardening

Geranium phaeum 'Lily Lovell' | dusky cranesbill 'Lily Lovell'/RHS Gardening

Geranium pratense 'Mrs Kendall Clark' | meadow cranesbill 'Mrs Kendall Clark'/RHS Gardening

Geranium 'Elke' | cranesbill 'Elke'/RHS Gardening

Geranium versicolor | pencilled geranium/RHS Gardening

Geranium wallichianum ‘Crystal Lake’

From my garden this summer 'Elke', 'Lily Lovell' (I just love the look of this one when the sun catches it) and 'Wargrave Pink' (well, I think that's what it is!) with a cheeky weed growing through it.



Nick

 

Stupid question, but is there a reason why your plants have more flowers than mine? Just a guess, but does it have something to do with the amount of cutting back (pruning) of the plant? I think I went wrong mistaking it as a common weed because of the mass of green leaves and lack of pink flowers. Judging by the age of the price tag I found today on one of the geranium's they would have been planted many years ago. So, it's not like they are not established.

 

@icehockeyuk I do absolutely nothing to mine apart from the occasional deadheading if I have the time and patience. Some cut them right down (remove every single bit of foliage after the first flush of flowers) to get another flowering later in the year, but I have had mixed results trying this. I think the lack of flowers on yours is just due to the time of year and them going to seed. The flowers should be back and in large numbers next year in May, especially if in a nice sunny spot.

Nick

 

Friends. The subject here is a member of the cransebill family. As with all plants, over the years plants have been enjoyed or hated. Botanists and scientists have compiled volumes about them. The final answer rests with YOU. Do you like it or hate it? Example. The cranesbill family is fairly large. Yes, it is a good ground cover plant. Any low growing, spreading even prostrat plant comes into this catagory. Anything plant or otherwise that covers an area of soil and thus restics other growth has some benefits.
Many of us shudder at seeing convolvus major in our gardens. It's a dreaded weed. Botanically it is a plant with many attributes. To conclude. If YOU like it, then why not grow it.