Dave Hill wrote in
oups.com:

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

Sorry, but I have not got a picture. If I had I could probably identify
it for myself.
This is a plant I saw (past tense), both in gardens and wild (altho'
there is no guarantee it hadn't escaped).
So I am working from memory here and would like to see a picture myself.
I had a look in a garden centre today with no success, except that the
geraniums were all to tall and too pale and too sprawly, but that could
be the way they were grown.
So what is left? Dark purple/blue flowers, possibly slightly larger than
those of the cranesbill geranium; habit probably more compact than the
gerraniums I saw today; no recollection of seedheads at all and
certainly not the spikey ones that cranesbill carry.
It could of course be that I cannot find it because it flowers later in
the year.
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk