9 Award-Winning Geranium Varieties to Plant This Spring

Hardy geranium, or cranesbill, features softly mounding, trailing stems and saucers of delicate, deep blue-purple blooms. Flowering begins in spring and, for many prized varieties, continues through frost. In dark to light periwinkle and magenta, violet, white, and pink, the species and their cultivars are a highlight in the border (and we should grow more of them). 

Not only are hardy geraniums ornamental, but they’re also a rich source of nectar and pollen for pollinators, especially bees. And they’re easy-care, adaptable perennials with few maintenance needs. Their leafy forms and rich blooms soften the border, container, window box, and raised bed arrangement. Let stems trail over a low wall or comingle with neighboring perennials.

The palmate, semi-evergreen leaves are attractive year-round, even when not in flower. From gray-green to purple-blotched, the leaves bring dynamic visual interest. Enjoy the graceful beauty of a durable perennial by selecting award-winning geranium varieties.

About Hardy Geraniums

True geraniums (Geranium spp.) differ from zonal or annual types, which are in the same Geraniaceae family but a different species (Pelargonium spp.). While they share the common name of the hardy genus, the tender, annual types have different forms, flowering, and growing requirements. Hardy geraniums are tough and cold hardy, while tender geraniums are frost-sensitive outside of USDA zones 10-11.

Geranium spp. (cranesbill) are hardy in USDA zones 3-8. There are nearly 300 species and a sea of cultivars and hybrids. Some cranesbills bloom in spring and early summer, while others last into autumn. They naturalize under optimal conditions, spreading by rhizome and some by seed, but aren’t weedy, aggressive, or competitive with neighboring plants. Many hybrids are sterile, with a long flowering season without seed production.

Hardy geraniums are adaptable but grow best in organically rich, well-draining soils with even moisture. Most benefit from shearing after flowering to promote a flush of new growth. But these low-maintenance perennials don’t require deadheading to bloom. Let leaves remain in the fall for a flash of rich green in the frosty garden. As a bonus, deer and rabbits find their texture and aroma unappealing. In hot climates, geraniums benefit from shade protection from the afternoon sun.

‘Rozanne’

	botanical name Geranium ‘Gerwat’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1-1.5’
	hardiness zones 4-8

‘Rozanne’ takes the number one seat for its beauty, performance, and popularity. It brings months of blooms that dot attractive deep-green foliage. Petal detailing includes purple-red veins and a bright white center.

From summer through frost, the repeat-blooming variety shows rich blue-purple flowers. Flowering is heaviest in spring and early summer and ongoing through fall, especially as temperatures begin to cool. Pollinators appreciate the late-season food source. ‘Rozanne’ is a sterile geranium variety, which accounts for its extended flowering (without energy going to seed production). With a two-foot spread, it takes to massing or to featuring as a single specimen in the bed or sizeable container.

A rugged constitution belies ‘Rozanne’s’ soft appearance. While some hardy types take a break in the summer heat, ‘Rozanne’ has good tolerance and keeps blooming. For its long flowering and vigor, ‘Rozanne’ won the Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial Plant of the Year award and the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. 

‘Orion’

	botanical name Geranium ‘Orion’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1.5-3’
	hardiness zones 4-8

‘Orion’ is a newer prized geranium variety with oversized features from flowers to form. The large, clump-forming perennial spreads three feet or more for a beautiful groundcover. Bowl-shaped blooms have overlapping blue petals with violet veins and white eyes. They flush heavily for two months in spring and early summer, with intermittent flowering through the fall.

‘Orion’ has finely textured leaves that are deeply dissected in fresh medium green. Shear plants as the flowers fade and new basal leaves emerge to promote fresh growth. As a seasonal bonus, foliage takes on red tinges in autumn.

The hybrid is likely a seedling cross between the award-winning Geranium ‘Brookside’ and G. himalayense ‘Gravetye.’ ‘Brookside’ holds Award of Garden Merit (AGM) status for its abundant clear blue flowers and deeply divided leaves. ‘Gravetye’ is a readily available, compact geranium variety with large, deep violet-blue blooms. It grows best in partial to full shade. With its vigorous parentage, ‘Orion’ acquired AGM assets for a prize of its own.

‘Biokovo’

	botanical name Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’
	sun requirements Full sun to full shade
	height 0.5-1’
	hardiness zones 4-8

This Perennial Plant of the Year winner is a naturally occurring hybrid from the Biokova Mountains in Croatia. Cultivated from two parent species geraniums at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, it entered the market as a floriforous pinky-white cultivar. It produces loads of white-petaled little cups with pink throats and prominent stamens.

Foliage is aromatic and glossy in light green with deep divisions. Leaves have seven lobes and form a cushioned backdrop for the sweet blossoms. Stems run and spread to create a mat (trim them to maintain size and habit), but ‘Biokovo’ doesn’t need shearing post-bloom.

‘Biokovo’ is a vigorous, semi-evergreen cultivar. It boasts a persistent flowering season, and its hybrids expand the color range of geranium varieties. It makes a fine specimen in rock gardens.

Wild Geranium

	botanical name Geranium maculatum
	sun requirements Partial to full shade
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 3-8

The North American native woodland species (Geranium maculatum) forms an open, upright habit from compact roots. Upfacing blossoms in pastel lavender-rose have delicate veining. Attractive foliage brings textural interest with its deeply cut, seven-lobed leaves in fresh, true green.

Also called spotted geranium and alum root, the perennial wildflower is easy to grow and beautiful in the woodland or naturalized arrangement. It’s a pollinator favorite for its nectar and pollen resources, with early blooms that recur sporadically through fall.

Wild geranium establishes easily and reseeds to slowly naturalize. This geranium variety prefers the shade, from dappled light to full shade situations beneath a tree canopy.

‘Elizabeth Ann’

	botanical name Geranium maculatum ‘Elizabeth Ann’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1.5-2’
	hardiness zones 3-8

A refined variety of the native wildflower species, ‘Elizabeth Ann’ has soft purple-pink blooms with overlapping petals. A lime calyx supports the blooms in bright contrast. Like the species, the perennial has an upright habit and upward-facing blossoms. Its most distinct feature among geranium varieties, though, is bronzey-toned foliage.

‘Elizabeth Ann’ brings foliar interest both in texture and color. Mahogany-bronze leaves emerge in spring and age to dusky green and burgundy in the summer. Use ‘Elizabeth Ann’ to brighten the shady border in leaf and flower. The variety is an RHS winner both with the AGM and plants for pollinators designation.

‘Czakor’

	botanical name Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Czakor’
	sun requirements Full sun to full shade
	height 1-1.5’
	hardiness zones 4-8

Bigroot geraniums are an adaptable species that tolerate various conditions like sun and shade, heat, and drought once established. They make a good match for dry, shady sites. The species has a lush, neat habit and bears magenta to light pink blossoms. In the fall, the foliage turns shades of burgundy and red.

‘Czakor’ is a favorite cultivar with bright magenta blooms and light green leaves. The mat-spreading perennial forms a gentle groundcover en masse with a width of two to four feet. It spreads slowly both by rhizomes and reseeds in optimal growing conditions.

Leaves are aromatic and textural, lending to their deer and rabbit resistance. This one doesn’t need shearing during the season. It’s another bee favorite, who are the main pollinators of hardy geraniums.

‘Azure Rush’

	botanical name Geranium ‘Azure Rush’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1-1.5’
	hardiness zones 5-8

‘Azure Rush’ is a dynamic, top-performing offspring of the prized ‘Rozanne’ – the high water mark of hardy geraniums. ‘Azure Rush’ is a naturally occurring sport (genetic mutation) of ‘Rozanne,’ discovered in Germany in 2007 by Jan Dirk Schuiver. 

The selection has a neat form and a tidy, rounded habit, and it is more compact than ‘Rozanne.’ Shorter internodes give it a lower profile in height and width, making it excellent for small garden spaces and containers.

‘Azure Rush’ shows lighter lavender-blue flowers than its parent. It, too, flowers continuously through frost, with the biggest flush in late May and into early summer. It tolerates heat but relies on partial shade in the afternoon in hot climates.

‘Sweet Heidy’

	botanical name Geranium ‘Sweet Heidy’
	sun requirements Full sun to full shade
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 4-9

‘Sweet Heidy’ is a prize for its transitioning tricolor flowers that are plentiful and show for an extended bloom time. Petals emerge pinkish purple and age to bluish hues. White centers highlight the eye, and dark veins and stamens punctuate the details. The effect is a multi-tonal flower on stems that mound and trail.

Deeply cut foliage is handsome in dark green and remains attractive all season, even if flowering slows in the heat of summer. Blooms resume with the cool temperatures of early fall. Use ‘Sweet Heidy’ in hanging baskets, window boxes, and pots, where its natural trailing habit is a feature.

‘Mrs. Kendall Clark’

	botanical name Geranium pratense ‘Mrs. Kendall Clark’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 2-3’
	hardiness zones 4-9

‘Mrs. Kendall Clark’ creates a cloud of dusty lilac blooms and gray-green foliage with jagged lobes. The pale periwinkle petals feature white highlights around dark veins. 

This densely mounding, clumping geranium is a cultivar of meadow cranesbill. It’s a garden favorite and AGM recipient for its abundant blooms and vigorous, tall, sprawling stems. Deadhead ‘Mrs. Kendall Clark’ to promote additional flowering.