Hardy Plant Society

Erodiums

Erodium Norse Pink


Erodium Robin


Erodium Stephanie and Kolbianum


Erodium Stephanie

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I joined the Hardy Plant Society, South Pennine Group in 1998.I was thrilled to find people as obsessed with plants as I was. I soon made friends at meetings and garden visits. I had discovered hardy geraniums before joining HPS, but had no idea there were so many. After a while I realised that many of my purchases were thugs, so gradually got rid of them (at our plant sales), and concentrated on the smaller ones like cinereum and riversleaianum.

I then discovered erodiums, same family, but mainly smaller.

I have 5 of the larger herbaceous ones, manescavii, La Feline, carvifolium, acaule, and castellanum, but these are starting to get too big. I also suspect that Almoldovar may turn out to belong to this group. The smaller ones, suitable for a rockery, are my favourites now. I bought my first ones from Peter Smith of DH Nurseries, Matlock. Maryla is named after his widow, who is a member of the Derbyshire Group. I have another called Robin, named by the French grower, Jean-Pierre Jolivot, for Robin Parer, an American grower who gave a lecture to our group some years ago.

Erodiums are very free flowering, starting in May through to November. They have beautiful ferny foliage, often silvery in colour. The flowers are usually pink, with a purple mark on two petals. They do need to be dead headed regularly, which I like to do on a sunny day, sitting on a stool alongside a large plant. I have counted over 200 spent flowers from one plant. They have aromatic foliage which adds to the pleasure.

They sulk if left in pots, and will do anything to get their tap roots down to the water table. Take cuttings in spring, pot them on into a gritty soil in a long pot, and then just as they are beginning to flower, but before they have wrapped their roots round and round the pot in frustration, plant in their permanent position. You will have a happy plant which will last for years.

My favourites are, Robin, Stephanie, kolbianum Natasha, Fran’s Delight, Maryla, Norse pink and Eileen Emmet.

Text and photographs by Judy Coulson of the HPS South Pennine Group