Two ladies, cocktails, and other geums
For me, now is the season of geum joy!
I adore geums. The first geum that I saw was Geum ’Tequila Sunrise’ in an online plant catalogue. ‘Tequila Sunrise’ has ruffled, single to semi-double, apricot flowers blushed with rose, that lighten to peach as they mature. I bought it in 2015 and it flowered that same year. I fell in love. I still have that plant.
Here is Geum ‘Tequila Sunrise’, in bloom.
From a distance or against a dark background, the flowers actually appear to dance in the air! And no, I haven’t been at the cider ; )
Geums, also known as Avens, are herbaceous, rhizomatous perennials of the Rosaceae family that reach a flowering height of up to 30-60cm and width of up to 75cm. They are native to Europe, Asia and North America, and are fully hardy in the UK. Geums have coarse bright green, lobed basal leaves which are evergreen or semi-evergreen. The leaves formed on flower stems differ somewhat, and are more sharply serrated in form. Flowers may be single to double, and are normally held well above the foliage on slim stems and sepals, which may be green of flushed brown, red or maroon. The flowers of some varieties nod downwards gracefully. Geums range in colour from white to yellow to red, and both vivid and pastel mixtures of these colours including orange, cream and apricot.
Depending on the variety, flowers are produced in a main flush in spring or early summer. I remove faded flowers regularly to encourage more buds. In some years, some of my early flowerers have given me a second less prolific flush later in the summer.
Geums grow well in moist but well-drained soils in full sun or partial shade. They struggle in very dry soil. It’s a good idea to prune them back hard after blooming to rejuvenate the foliage, which slugs and snails don’t seem to trouble much. The foliage can look a bit worse for wear in winter, but fear not, a healthy plant will bounce back in spring. Clumps may be divided every 3 to 4 years in spring or autumn.
Now, what about the two ladies?
Well, there are at least 50 species of Geum, and many, many varieties. Two popular varieties of Geum chiloense, native to the island of Chiloe, off the coast of Chile, are named after women. They are Geum chiloense ‘Mrs J Bradshaw’ and Geum chiloense ‘Lady Stratheden’.
‘Mrs J Bradshaw’ aka Scarlet Avens has bright red semi-double to double flowers held high on particularly tall green stems. This old variety has been gracing cottage gardens which was introduced to the UK in 1909 by the Baker’s nursery of Codsall, Staffordshire.
‘Lady Stratheden’ has yellow double flowers, again on green stems. It was also introduced to the UK in 1921 by the Baker’s nursery of Codsall, Staffordshire. The flower was named for the 1st Baroness Stratheden of Scotland, Mary Elizabeth Scarlett (1796-1860).
While I know nothing of the characters of either Mrs J Bradshaw or Lady Stratheden, the words gregarious, cheerful and happy come to my mind when I see the flowers named after them. They really do make me smile!
If you are looking for something in between ‘Mrs J Bradshaw’ and ‘Lady Stratheden’, there’s always the bright orange ‘Totally Tangerine’, which has been in bloom on one of my plots since April!
Here’s ‘Totally Tangerine’:
‘Totally Tangerine’ aka ‘Tim’s Tangerine’ is a sterile hybrid cultivar with dainty peachy-orange flowers introduced in 2010 by Tim Crowther of the Walberton Nursery, Arundel. It is a cross between Geum chiloense 'Mrs J Bradshaw’ and another species, Geum rivale. Like many sterile plants, ‘Totally Tangerine’ has a very long flowering season.
But a few other geums …
I also have Geum ‘Mai Tai’ and Geum ‘Flames of Passion’ plants. All rather exotic names. In fact ‘Mai Tai’ and ‘Tequila Sunrise’ are two varieties in the Cocktails™ series of hybrids bred by Brent Horvath of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens in the USA. Yes, each variety is named after a cocktail! My cocktail of choice is a Cuban Mojito. Shame there doesn’t seem to be a variety by that name. Perhaps I could do a bit of breeding and come up with it … There’s an idea.
‘Mai Tai’ and ‘Flames of Passion’ are very beautiful single to semi-double-flowered avens. Flowers are held on very slender dark stems so, as with ‘Tequila Sunrise’, you can get the ‘suspended in air’ effect too. I particularly love ‘Mai Tai’.
'Flames of Passion' was introduced in 2003 introduction by Petrus Hendricus Oudolf of Hummelo, The Netherlands. It has deep red-pink, semi-double flowers that are slightly nodding in bud but more upward-facing at maturity.
Here are ‘Mai Tai’ and ‘Flames of Passion’.
There are so many Geums to enjoy! I have but a few. I dream of having a collection when I have enough land of my own on which to grow all of the plants of my heart’s desire.
