Spotlight on Hardy Geraniums

Geraniums often bring visions of Grandma’s garden with their robust, scented foliage and dazzling flower heads. These geraniums are annuals for most regions and belong to a separate genus in the Geranium family known as Pelargoniums. Today, however, we are going to take a look at another type of perennial geranium in the same plant family known as hardy geraniums or cranesbills.

Max Frei Bloody Cranesbil first bloom of the season

Hardy geraniums come in a variety of growth habits, flower color and bloom time.  They can be hardy for zones 5-81.  Geranium flowers have 5 sepals, 5 petals and stamens in groups of 52.  Some are long season repeat bloomers while others give a flush of blooms once a season.  The leaves are lobed and can have varying degrees of dissection between cultivars.   Some cultivars have foliage that turns a beautiful red color in the fall, extending their season of interest.   

Rozanne Geranium using Gaura as a support

One of the best known varieties of cranesbill geranium is Rozanne with its purple-blue flowers.   Rozanne is a vigorous perennial that plays well with other plants, using them as support as it winds and weaves its way around. It has a growth spread of up to 3 feet3 but can be sheared back to rejuvenate if it begins to appear leggy. It blooms from late spring through autumn.   

In contrast to its more vigorous
growing cousin, Max Frei Bloody cranesbill grows in a tidy, mounding clump of 12-18 inches with small bright magenta flowers against its rich green foliage. A perfect front-of-the-border perennial.   The foliage turns brilliant red in the fall extending its season of interest.  

There are also varieties of hardy geraniums that have deep dark foliage such as midnight ghost with its chocolatey brown leaves, wine colored stems and white flowers.  In all, there are around 300 different cultivars4 of hardy geraniums and many of the lesser known varieties can be purchased online as bareroot plants.  They are wonderful plants that can add a pop of color to a garden or be used in a mass planting for ground cover.  

1. Cranesbill, Hardy Geranium

https://extension.illinois.edu/flowers/cranesbill-hardy-geranium

2. The Genus Geranium:  https://canr.udel.edu/udbg/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2024/02/Geranium-Featured-Plant-Article.pdf

3. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ the 2008 Perennial of the Year

https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/geranium-rozanne-the-2008-perennial-of-the-year/

4. Hardy Geraniums for Northern Gardens

https://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no22_geraniums.pdf

Container Gardening - Tomatoes...and more!

Container vegetable gardening is an accessible and rewarding way to grow your own food, whether you have a sprawling backyard or just a sunny balcony. Choosing the right vessel is the foundation of a successful container garden. Most vegetables need at least 12 inches of depth, and larger is generally better. A 5-gallon container works for compact plants, while tomatoes thrive in 10 to 15-gallon pots.

Make sure every container has drainage holes to prevent waterlogged roots. Skip regular garden soil, which compacts easily in pots. Instead, use a high-quality potting mix blended with compost for nutrients and perlite or vermiculite to keep it light and well-draining.

When it comes to what to grow, a classic and productive combination is tomatoes, basil and pollinator-friendly flowers. Tomatoes are a container garden staple.

“Compact” or "patio" varieties do especially well in pots. Look for “determinate” tomatoes if you seed start or purchasing starts for your container. These are the type of tomatoes that mature to a certain height and won’t overwhelm a container/small space. Basil is a natural companion plant that repels certain pests and thrives in the same sunny, warm conditions as tomatoes. Tuck in a few flowers like marigolds, nasturtiums, or zinnias to attract bees and butterflies, which are essential for pollinating your tomatoes and keeping your garden productive.

With the right size pot, a good quality potting mix, and a thoughtful combination of plants like tomatoes, basil, and pollinator flowers, you can create a thriving mini-garden almost anywhere. Keep up with watering — containers dry out faster than garden beds — and you'll be rewarded with a beautiful, productive space all season long.

For even more information on other vegetables and plants to grow in pots, go here: 
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/container-gardening-grow-vegetables-even-without-yard-space

Pruning Lilacs on the Old Homestead - What I Learned...

Before Pruning

It is late winter in the Treasure Valley, and you live in a rural area in an older home. The poplars have aged out and there are several stumps in the yard. The silver maples bordering the pasture are taking over. The cottonwoods are huge and messy. You play pick up sticks after every storm. The sumac is long and leggy and the one and the only lilac has been ignored for a long time. It attacks you when you mow and is curling under the eaves. There is a plan to paint the house this summer, so a plan is required to minimize the lilac’s size, so I began my research!

The best time to prune a lilac is in the spring a month after it blooms. This gives the plant plenty of time to develop buds for the following year. If flowering is your main priority, this is a good time to prune.

Lilacs can also tolerate a “hard prune” also known as rejuvenation pruning when dormant, which is cutting all the old stems to within 6-12 inches from the ground. In the spring new stems will grow. The advantage to this is that it really does not require much skill. The disadvantage is that it could take up to 3 years to bloom again.  This is best for lilacs that are overgrown and no longer flowering.

Selective heading cuts are best for managing the size of the lilac. Heading cuts are made by pruning the terminal part of 30% of younger stems back to a bud. This will help maintain its natural shape.

An alternative to the “hard prune” is to thin the oldest lilac stems by 30% also known as renewal pruning, using the “Three-year Plan”, when dormant to open up the shrub and contain it in its allotted space. This will also increase light penetration and air circulation.

 This is what I chose. I planned to prune 30%, but not to top it using the following steps:

After Pruning

1.Remove dead and diseased limbs. Remove the debris. It already looks better.
2. Remove crossing branches.
3. Working from bottom, thin 30% of stems to open up the tree.

I laid a tarp on the ground for clippings and tried to evaluate how much I had removed. It has been suggested to me to take a picture before and after pruning to help determine when I had reached my 30% goal, remembering that 30% is an ‘eyeball’ estimate. Less is more as they say. There is always next year.

Leafed out and Bloomed!

How does the lilac look? Better, but not perfect. Leafing out will help it a lot. I checked it yesterday (03/26/26) and it is starting to leaf out, and I can see buds on the branches. If there is not hard freeze, it will bloom this season. Some sources advise fertilizing and mulching after pruning, but there was a substantial mulch of cottonwood leaves around it, and I can fertilize once water is available.

Conclusion: Reading about pruning and doing it are two different things. It didn’t turn out to be as daunting as I had feared. 

Organic Gardening – What are the Benefits?

An organic gardener promotes natural ecosystems, focuses on soil health, composting and biodiversity.  They also avoid synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms.  What are the benefits of gardening this way?  Can I still get a bountiful crop of food from my home garden if I use these methods? Here's some guidelines!

Environmental benefits include building the soil, avoiding harmful chemicals, using nature as a teacher and protecting our pollinators.  Did you know that our pollinators are responsible for 1 out of 3 bites of food that we eat!  

What about soil building?  Using compost is an excellent way to introduce organic matter into the soil.  This feeds the microorganisms in the soil and helps the soil to be healthy and full of the nutrition your plants need to thrive.  What about using nature as a teacher?  We learn from hands-on experience, our successes and our mistakes.  

In the Treasure Valley, organic gardening offers unique regional benefits due to the area’s semi-arid climate and alkaline soils. By incorporating organic matter like compost, gardeners can improve soil structure, increase water retention, and reduce the need for frequent irrigation during hot, dry summers. 

Mulching is especially helpful in conserving moisture and regulating soil temperature. Additionally, choosing drought-tolerant and native plants can lead to more resilient gardens that thrive with fewer inputs. 

What about insect and disease control?  While there are safe, organic products to use in your home garden, there are also things you can do to prevent diseases and manage the insects in your garden.  Timing matters when planting and when using organic products to help your plants thrive.  Prevention is also key.  Pay attention to your garden, this way you can stop a small problem from becoming a big problem.  Educate yourself on what to look for.  Practice, experience and learning from others will help you to start implementing some of these practices in your own home garden.

Organic gardening is a great way to familiarize yourself with how things grow, when plants might need some help to thrive, and why our pollinators and our soil are so important to the success of gardening. 

Successful Transplanting Tips

Measure and record the soil and air temperatures in your garden or use a trusted local source for tracking temperatures like The Growing Degree Day Calculator, developed by UI Extension Educator Jemila Chellappa. Using this real-time information to determine planting dates every year will limit risk of frost damage. 

Whether you’re planting in plugs from the local nursery, potting up seedlings, or moving young plants in and out of your own greenhouse you can and should follow a few simple steps to successfully transplant vegetables and flowers this spring. As the days grow longer and the warmth of the spring sun fuels new life, remember that giving your plants extra attention during this stage is critical to ensuring they’ll thrive! Here are some easy tips to keep your garden happy: Rely on average soil and air temperatures rather than your zone frost dates when you’re ready to start outdoor plantings. 

 

Gradually acclimate young plants and plugs to their new space over the course of a week after any risk of frost if possible. Carefully prepare the planting holes paying close attention to depth to ensure roots are fully covered. This is a good time to add a small amount of mycorrhizal inoculant and organic fertilizer to each planting hole.

Hardening off process is next. “There are no hard and fast rules. Over a period of about a week, gradually increase the time the plants are in full sun, exercising care if a day is particularly hot or windy. Be sure to keep the seedlings well-watered, and avoid locations that might attract animal or insect pests.” (The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara, 2026) 

Now that your plants have hardened off and become familiar with their new home it’s time to pick a calm afternoon for planting. Be sure the planting area is well watered before beginning, carefully remove the plant from its container with clean hands and tools, place in the planting hole so the soil levels are even. Gently fill in with soil around the roots and firm it in place. Always water in plants after transplanting, even if the ground is moist, as this helps the root mass settle into the new soil. Settling new soil is very important to avoid air pockets around the root ball that can be fatal to a plant. Proper transplanting practices will lead to healthier more vigorous plants that require less maintenance.  

Warm Winter? Watch for More Pests

Preparing for Pest Pressure After a Warm Winter

If your garden seems overrun with insects after a mild winter, you're likely spot-on. Mild winters, while enjoyable for us, often lead to heightened pest challenges come spring. Warmer-than-normal temperatures allow more insect pests to survive the cold season, resulting in earlier activity and potentially larger populations throughout the growing season. Typically, harsh winters act as a natural check on pest numbers. Many insects overwinter as eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults in protected spots like soil, leaf litter, plant stems, or bark crevices. Prolonged freezing kills off a portion of these populations, keeping numbers in balance. But during a warm winter, survival rates rise significantly. Pests such as aphids, mites, scale insects, caterpillars, and certain beetles can emerge sooner and in greater numbers. Warmer spring conditions accelerate their development, enabling faster reproduction and sometimes additional generations per season. For instance, experts note that milder winters reduce stress on overwintering insects, boosting spring survival and often giving pests a head start as plants green up earlier.

This dynamic also affects the predator-prey balance. Beneficial insects—like lady beetles, lacewings, and parasitic wasps—overwinter in similar garden debris, such as leaf litter or hollow stems. While many survive mild conditions too, pest populations frequently rebound quicker, creating a temporary imbalance where pests gain an advantage. Both harmful and helpful insects rely on these overwintering sites, so the key isn't total removal of debris but strategic management.

Gardeners are increasingly advised to delay heavy cleanup until spring, waiting until temperatures consistently hit around 50°F (10°C) to allow beneficials to emerge first. This protects pollinators and natural enemies while still permitting thoughtful tidying. Removing everything in fall or early spring can disrupt these helpful populations.

The best defense against elevated pest pressure is vigilant monitoring. As plants break dormancy, check regularly for insects or damage—focus on new growth and leaf undersides, where many pests congregate. Early detection makes control far easier, whether through hand-picking, water sprays, or targeted interventions before outbreaks escalate. Bolstering beneficial insects helps too. Plant diverse flowering species to supply nectar and pollen year-round, sustaining predators and parasitoids. Minimize unnecessary pesticides to preserve these allies, which naturally suppress pests. Healthy plants also fare better: ensure proper watering, sunlight, and soil nutrition so they withstand minor damage more resiliently.

A warm winter doesn't doom your garden to chaos, but it raises the odds of increased insect pressure. By staying proactive—monitoring closely, delaying cleanup thoughtfully, nurturing beneficials, and prioritizing plant health—you can manage challenges effectively while fostering a thriving, balanced ecosystem.

Additional Reading:
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/how_insects_survive_cold_the_potential_effect_of_a_mild_winter
https://yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu/article/2024/03/what-do-warm-winter-temperatures-do-insect-populations
https://extension.psu.edu/delay-garden-cleanup-to-benefit-overwintering-insects

Native Flowers in the Home Garden

Spring is a perfect time to plan for new intriguing colors and features in the yard. With all the common plants available in local stores and greenhouses, one should check out the lesser-known native flowers for their unique charm. There are hundreds to choose from, and these native beauties hold up well under Idaho’s four seasons. Three lesser-known flowers, which are sure to steal the show in the yard, include the Rock Columbine (Aquilegia scopulorum), the Wild Blue Phlox (Linum lewisii), and the Bubblegum Mint (Agastache cana). 

The Rock Columbine is a little showstopper reaching its full height of 7 to 10 inches when bloomed out in blue flowers from May through August. It can grow in many soils including the common alkaline and clay soils of the Treasure Valley. Rock Columbine enjoys full sun or moderate shade, and though it can’t survive completely on its own without supplemental watering, it only needs watering when the leaves look stressed. This flower is not invasive and can easily be maintained.

Lewis Flax, also known as Wild Blue Phlox (Linum lewisii) is a fascinating native flower. Its blue flowers bloom in late spring to mid-summer, which have the curious habit of dropping to the ground after a day only to be replaced with others the next morning. The Lewis Flax isn’t picky with the soil it likes and requires moderate to little water. In fact, can be on the invasive side if it has a great water source. The Lewis Flax is 12 - 30” tall making it a great addition to the middle or back of your garden.

Another interesting flower is the Bubblegum Mint (Agastache cana) plant originally from New Mexico and western Texas. These form pink and violet flower spikes in late summer until the fall when it frosts.  This is a ‘leggy’ plant growing 36-40’ tall and works perfectly in the back of a garden or in a hard to grow section of well drained sand or gravel. Other great features to the Bubblegum mint include needing only 3 - 5 waterings a year and having no insect or disease problems. 

There are hundreds of native flowers growing in Idaho with just as interesting and beautiful flowers to pick from. Many of these thrive in xeriscapes and rock gardens, which means they can look stunning even with the water spigot turned down. Check out “Native Plants for the Intermountain West” for more native flowers with brief descriptions of what to expect from each plant and how to care for them.