The Prize for the Longest-Blooming Perennial Goes To…

The prize for the longest-blooming perennial in my garden goes to…

Wait.

Is it fair to award prizes for longest-blooming when some plants just weren’t made to bloom over a long period of time, but instead were made to toss out their petals in one big, over the top show? Shouldn’t they get a prize?

Like peonies.

Or what about flowers that kinda bloom for a long period of time but it’s mostly in the wintertime when nothing else is blooming? But honestly most of those blooms are tighly closed buds for part of that time but we call them blooms because there isn’t anything else blooming. Shouldn’t they get a prize?

Like Christmas roses.

Or how about those flowers that show up so early in spring that they are actually blooming in the winter but they are so small that hardly anyone even notices or thinks to check for them blooming because honestly the flowers aren’t that pretty either, but they do have a scent. Shouldn’t they get a prize?

Like witch hazels.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Each flower, each plant deserves recognition for doing what it does best, even if it isn’t all that special. Because the conditions aren’t always in their favor. They might face getting too much rain, not enough rain, animals that want to eat them, other plants that want to crowd them out, gardeners who step on them…

But somehow, they come through, often year after year, doing whatever they do best.

Anyway, back to the prize for the longest-blooming perennial in my garden.

Here’a picture of our prize winner from June 14th showing it in full bloom so it would have started blooming earlier than that.

The picture at the top of this post shows one of its blooms from a few days ago. June-July-August-September-October. That’s a good run for a perennial flower that doesn’t require much care.

And so the prize for the longest-blooming perennial in my garden goes to…

Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Pictured taken this morning, October 29. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ isn’t just hanging on with one flower, which the top picture might imply, it’s blooming, hardly aware that a likely killing frost will occur by tomorrow morning.