Cranesbill Hexham Velvet 

A very new, compact, pretty, very floriferous, low-growing perennial, Geranium wallichianum Hexham Velvet is a vigorous, clump-forming, herbaceous perennial, with a rather trailing habit. The typical cranesbill leaves are lacy, pointed, mid-green and attractively marbled. The single, satiny, magenta-pink flowers, veined darker, last from June to November, and are attractive to pollinators. Cranesbill Hexham Velvet is ideal for the front of a border in a cottage garden; it is also very good underplanting roses, as it ‘climbs’, disguising the roses’ stick-like legs. This is an easy plant to grow, as long as you shear off leaves and flowers after the first bout of flowering – they recover remarkably quickly. Mulch with manure or garden compost in spring to conserve soil moisture, and water in dry spells in the first year; thereafter, they are fairly drought-resistant. Dead-head to prolong flowering.