On 20 Jun, 10:50, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:
In message . de, Jim
Scott writes

Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote in
:

In message , Charlie Pridham
writes

"Jim Scott" wrote in message
atemas.de...
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote in
:

In message . de,
Jim Scott writes
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote in
:

In message
. de, Jim Scott
writes
I am trying to identify a perrenial.
It has most of the characteristics of a hardy geranium, but
having checked specialist growers I do not recognise it there.
The flowers are blue/purple, the plant ~ 6" tall x ~9-12" wide
initially, and the flowers are not of the cranesbill type.
I have seen it growing wild on the coast.
Any suggestions?

It's a bit on the small size, but is it a Common Mallow (Malva
sylvestris)? The native(ish) form has pale red to rose to lilac
flowers, but the Mediterranean form has magenta flowers, and
might be found as an escape.

The leaves of mallows and geraniums can look very similar; it
took me a few years to train myself to tell them apart, and
that's assuming I don't come across anything exotic. The
distinguishing mark of mallows (including hibiscuses, abutilons
and the like) is the fusion of the filaments of the stamens into
a column enclosing the style, generally with the free portion of
the filaments and the anthers clustered at the top of the
column.

Possibly.
I saw a blue geranium on the banks of The Tyne today, so perhaps
it was that after all.

The wild blue-flowered species are Geranium pratense (Meadow
Cranesbill) and Geranium sylvaticum (Wood Cranesbill). But you
would have found these in Keble-Martin. (I photographed one of
these as Allenback back in 2000.) There are other blue-flowered
forms among the cultivars and exotics, such as Geranium 'Johnson's
Blue', Geranium wallichianum 'Buxton's Variety' and Geranium
renardii (rather purplish)

When you said that the flowers were not of the cranesbill type, I
assumed you meant a difference other than colour.

I did, but I cannot come up with anything else of that habit in my
search. I am still not convinced that I have spotted anything with
an intense enough blue to suggest I've found what I'm looking for. I
gave my daughter my big illustrated book of plants and people are
beginning to worry about this strange old geezer peering into their
gardens. Google has not come up with a search I can do by: colour,
flower size, plant size, location etc. --
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk
You said near the coast, most obvious blue flower there is sheep bit
scabious, but the flowers are nothing like geranium! then there are
sea asters, various campanulas, vinca minor and chicory, this year it
would be difficult to work on flowering periods as everything seems to
be early.

But, if I'm not mistaken, none of these have foliage that looks
anything like a geranium either.

Never said anything about foliage.
I might be wrong, but all I said was that the size and shape of the
whole plant is similar to that of one of the low growing hardy
geraniums.

Your original post said "Most of the characteristics of a hardy
geranium" ... "flowers are not of the cranesbill type". I think you'll
find that most of us interpreted that as meaning that it looked like a
geranium (which includes the form of the foliage) except for the
flowers.

About all I now know of the plant is that it is herbaceous, does not
have erect flowering spikes, and has blue-purple flowers. Can you offer
us any more details?
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Or a picture?
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries