Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Karmina’

In my landscape design scenarios, while focused on the needs of clients, the importance of including “known entities” or those plants that have a long-proven and solid performance is paramount to success. While I’m as entranced as anyone with all the exciting new introductions of plants every year, there are some “cornerstone” performers that will always be in my design repertoire. The ‘Karmina’ cranesbill geranium (Geranium x cantabrigiense) is one such performer. This vigorous, semi-evergreen, mat-forming perennial offers multiple seasons of interest, and I can’t recall a situation in which it hasn’t fulfilled the expectations of vigor, function and beauty.

‘Karmina’ is a sterile, hybrid geranium (G. macrorrhizum x G. dalmaticum) that reaches 8-10 inches in height and gently spreads by underground stems to create a nice groundcover. Thriving in full sun or part shade, it can also tolerate heavier shade (at the expense of some flowering). Hardy in USDA Zones 4-8, this perennial geranium offers solid flowering, clean, aromatic foliage and a nice fall color late in the season. The masses of five-petaled, lilac-pink flowers (¾ inch diameter) open from dark red buds. Blooming heavily from late spring until mid-summer, this geranium will give more than four weeks of flowering interest. Notably, the popular variety ‘Biokovo’ has the same parentage and characteristics but features pale, pink flowers.

The deeply cut, seven-lobed, aromatic foliage offers a clean look and will transition to beautiful oranges and reds later in the fall. As a groundcover or underplanting, ‘Karmina’ geranium forms a nice mat that reduces competitive weed growth and is a solid candidate in gaps between shrubs or areas with some space to fill. In hotter summer climates, any declining foliage can be sheared back for quick regrowth. Tolerant of a wide range of moist, well-drained soils, consider supplemental watering during extended dry spells when grown in full sun. This perennial, while attracting bees and butterflies, is both deer and rabbit resistant. Propagation is through stem cuttings or division. This low-maintenance geranium offers durability and beauty in equal measure, and I hope availability will keep pace with its popularity.