Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on June 07, 2011, 12:39:09 PM
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I saw a very common mistake on The Beechgrove Garden last night which only helps the mistake keep going on.
The Geranium in the problem garden wasnt Johnsons Blue. It's Geranium x Magnificum.
Three Geraniums are confused and commonly seen in garden centres and gardens and misnamed. These are G. himalayense, G. x Magnificum and the real G. 'Johnson's Blue'
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...and how do we tell them apart Mark?
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Like this ...
G. himalayense
G. 'Johnson's Blue' (himalayense x pratense)
G. x Magnificum (ibericum x platypetalum)
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Mark,
I too have seen blue geraniums called 'Johnson's Blue' when they quite clearly aren't. I can identify it when I see it.
I have a bank of blue geraniums that I have been unable to identify until now. Thanks for the guide. I have Geranium x magnificum.
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Graham ..and I have 'Johnson's Blue' though it is more of a mauve tinge than a true blue (though Johnson's bluey-mauve wouldn't have had the same ring to it).
Thanks Mark for identification - can you advise on the colour of the filaments as I have two plants which have same leaf and colour as Johnson's Blue but one has white and the other pink filaments.
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Thanks Mark, I will have to look in the morning. 8)
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Happy to help Graham
Frazer do you have a photo of your Johnson's Blue? Unfortunately I no longer grow JB because it flowers only once so I cant look for you
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I think then that I have Johnson's Blue, the colour is, of course much more vivid.
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No, it's x Magnificum with it's furry leaves but it could be one of the named selections.
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B8&&8r, oh well, thanks for the identification anyway Mark, at least I know what that one is now. :)
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Brian I'll go to a neighbours garden and see how variable the flowers are. Yours a spaces while my plant has fuller flowers
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Spotted that too and I think the potentilla wasn't Red Ace neither.(luckily as it is not a strong grower)
Looked more like Sunset.What is your guess?
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:-[ I didn't notice the Potentilla
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Like this ...
G. himalayense
G. 'Johnson's Blue' (himalayense x pratense)
G. x Magnificum (ibericum x platypetalum)
Thanks Mark. Very clear & helpful.
Brian I'll go to a neighbours garden and see how variable the flowers are. Yours a spaces while my plant has fuller flowers
My x magnificum is the (usual ?) fuller form too, distinct from yours Brian.
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This is my Magnificum but being a hybrid there's going to be some variation.I must say it's one of my favourites.
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If only Magnificum flowered all summer rather than a week or two at the end of May and early June
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They made a Geranium mistake again - tut tut
Their Geranium psilostemon is, I think, Patricia.
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Mark
I didn't see that section of the show but G. Patricia is, I think, a smaller hybrid of G. psilostemon but similar in most other respects.
Frazer
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Here's my Patricia, >:( i am modifing this post it seems my flower might not be Patricia.
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misleading info again from the programme
while showing the garden centre type Cyclamen which is everywhere right now the presenter said
"These aren't the house plant Cyclamen. These are little hardy autumn flowering ones. They will run out of steam for winter but they will flower in the autumn"
I feel like emailing them but they the last time I did I got a very nasty email from the programme makers.
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Yes, but you have to remember that these presenters don't have specialised knowledge, so instead of knowing a lot about something they know very little about everything. They see small cyclamen and say "hederifolium", when in fact they are small versions of Cyclamen persicum and won't survive the first serious frost!
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At a talk on Tuesday I was asked why does C. hederifolium die in the winter. Their local garden centre had labelled their cyclemen as hardy and C. hederifolium.
I went for a look the next day and spoke to the manager who said he bought them as that and that's how they will stay.
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It's so they can sell the 'same' plants to the same infortunate people in a year's time.
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One way to get true plants (for at least the species) to to subscribe to collector's seed shares, such as Chris Chadwell's 2011 Himalayan seed prospectus. Earlier this summer he sent me seed of Geranium himalayense with a collector number, I sowed the seed outdoors in the garden straight away, and I was suprised to seed one seedling plant came up early. Can't wait to see it mature, the photos of it look yummy.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7643.msg209215#msg209215