I’ve had such a wonderful experience with perennial geranium ‘Rozanne’ that I decided this spring to try another geranium cultivar with a long bloom season. ‘Shocking Blue’ has “blue” flowers with a white eye that are supposed to appear from May through September.
I planted ‘Shocking Blue’ in a flowerbed that gets a pretty decent amount of sun during the day. I must admit that I was not impressed by the plant’s performance over the summer. ‘Rozanne’ forms a lovely clump that’s loaded with flowers all summer long. ‘Shocking Blue’ meandered a bit more and my plant really skimped on the flowers. That is until recently.
For some reason ‘Shocking Blue’ kicked into high gear just as the temperatures dropped and the days got shorter. One day I was backing out of my driveway and actually stopped the car to gape at it. Most of my other perennials pooped out 6 weeks week ago and are turning brown and getting ready for winter, but ‘Shocking Blue’ has decided that late October is a great time to light up the flowerbed.
The flowers are purply-blue but appear a beautiful shade of sky blue on overcast days or when they are shaded. At 2 inches across, they are bigger and more showy than the flowers of ‘Rozanne’.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what this plant will do next summer now that it has settled in. I’m hoping it will share more of its showy flowers throughout the season rather than hoarding them until the bitter end.