Daylily1940

Its books such as this and garden visits/tours that encourage us to look at our own gardens with a fresh eye and do something "new"!

They are so beautiful!

It is definitely a bloody cranesbill, geranium sanguineum, cultivar: John Elsley. I have had it for years and love it but do have to remind it occasionally where it boundaries are! I think the secret is to grow it in northern zones where it isn't as aggressive.

When I was growing up in the Adirondacks of New York State (zone 3) there was a Dutchman Pipe vine on our porch. It was there when my parents bought the house in 1945. Our father cut it down several times to make repairs to the porch and it grew back bigger and better than ever! If you want a vine that provides shade this is the one to get. I have a friend who has it climbing over her pergola shaded patio and loves it. As for longevity...as I said it was there when my parents bought the house and when they left nearly twenty years later it was still flourishing.