I'm sure Douglas Justice has said that he doesn't do plants below his knees, but here we are focusing on just that - all Geranium. These are not the Pelargonium known by the common name of geranium, but Geranium species plants known by the common name of crane's bill (and geranium). Douglas's blog at June in the Garden 2023 - UBC Botanical Garden has the usual good photos, particularly helpful because these are known for their "enthusiastic behaviour". I found only one label, but I'm not saying there were not labels. I'm saying that instead of hiding your emergency key under the doormat, which is not all that safe, attach it to a crane's bill label attached to your plant, where no thief will find it. The David C. Lam entrance boulder is at the start of Upper Asian Way, and the geraniums start just past there. These bright glossy leaves would belong to Geranium himalayense. There are plenty of hairs on these G. platypetalum to distinguish them from Himalayan species. G. psilostemon are supposed to flower mid to late June, so maybe this late year for cherries has become an early year for geraniums. These are next to the Rosa odorata 'Mutabilis'. I think this must be the large patch of Geranium macrorrhizum dominating the top of the east-facing Pavilion bed above the food garden. These are way finished blooming. I would have said it's the Angelica archangelica that's dominating that spot. In the European section of the Alpine Garden is Geranium renardii, which has finished blooming - too bad, as it's the featured photo on the blog, and the flowers look lovely, but it's justly known for its "nubbly-soft-grey" foliage anyway. We've met the parents now of this Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle': G. renardii and G. platypetalum.
I don't know what it's called, but this one is carpetting the places where I never use the lawn-mower, especially on the heap of branches and other weeds :
I think these are also Geranium platypetalum, on the north side of the main path, but back near the Carpinus. These might be my favourites. This should be Geranium pratense, even though the blog says the flowers should be lavender-blue to purple-blue. I'm seeing white flowers on an internet search, with a description about it being tall and having deeply cut flowers, and it's in the right place. Here are two that are not in the blog. I finally found a label (or I had help finding a label) for this group on the ramp up to the Roseline Sturdy Amphitheatre, but I don't know - it says Geranium 'Spinners', but the description for that having rich purple-blue flowers doesn't match and the deeply cut leaves in internet photos don't match these either. There are a lot of Geranium endressii - French cranesbill in the Winter Garden.
Ah, thank you. Maybe they all look the same to me (as in "Who can distinguish these things?!) because some of them are the same. I didn't realize the G. endressii had hairy stems, which I can see now that I zoom in on that last photo.
The hybrid comes in softly colored selections such as this one (below). Otherwise, if the flowers of the mystery near the 'Spinners' sign are too small for G. x oxonianum maybe it is a G. endressii variant. Geranium × oxonianum 'Wargrave'|cranesbill 'Wargrave Pink'/RHS Gardening
The Geranium pratense 'Plenum Violaceum' was in bloom yesterday. I have no idea how I got that fourth photo - there was not any fog rolling in.
I think it's just the auto-focus function of your camera, the foreground is neat and clear while the background is blurred.
