A recent non life threatening but exceedingly frustrating injury is going to keep me sidelined from much garden work for several more weeks and so, other than upcoming trips, my posts may be a bit anemic!

On my early May garden tour road trip to Orange County, I saw this dainty pink geranium in one of the tour garden’s sunny beds. The benefit in touring within a car ride’s distance from home is that there will always be at least one outing to my favorite Southern California garden centers!

‘Miss Heidi’ is one of more than 85 named selections of Geranium x oxonianum, a  very large group in part due to the species’ tendency to produce enormous numbers of seedlings. Ninety-nine percent of these named selections are pink! ‘Miss Heidi’ is one of the Monrovia nursery introductions and I have yet to see it in a Central Valley retailer even though it is purported to offer more tolerance to summer heat than many other true geraniums. Literature indicates it resents high humidity and direct afternoon sun.

All of the Geranium x oxonianum form clumping mounds of five lobed, deeply dissected green leaves. The small but plentiful flowers are slightly funnel shaped with notched petals and vary from white to dark pink and many with prominent veining.  ‘Miss Heidi’ is a clear mid pink with purple veins.

I sited my new friends in my south facing front garden tucked back under some leafy shade. I have in mind to set several large stepping stones to form a casual path to a seldom used side gate and hope that with two ‘Miss Heidi’ on the right and the third on the left forming a loose triangle, they will offer a colorful but subtle guide along the path.

With more gardeners appreciating the virtues of the true geraniums, as fillers, spillers, creepers and mounders adding texture and interest to containers and beds I can’t help but think we will start to see them more available at local garden centers and nurseries. Hooray!