Geranium, Maverick, Red

Maverick's are a southern gardener's salvation, thriving even in the sopping-wet humidity and searing heat of our summers. Other container plants look wilted even the same day you water them, but never Maverick. It's compact, well-branched, large-flowered, and thoroughly agreeable to weather extremes. We wouldn't want anything less for our terracotta pots and white window boxes. Maverick is a very compact plant, reaching just 14 to 16 inches high (in full bloom) and nearly as wide. The foliage is large, softly lobed and creased, and bright green. It forms bushy rosettes beneath the flowering stems, which hold their giant spheres of blooms several inches above the rest of the plant. Maverick is an annual Geranium, which is to say not a true Geranium at all, but a Pelargonium, known by some gardeners as Cranesbills. If you live in a frost-free climate, though, you can probably overwinter them successfully. If you don't, bring your favorites in for winter and put them in a bright window. They'll live for years with this kind of treatment! (They're also easy to propagate. Pick up some rooting hormone at the nursery and dip the cut stems of a mature Maverick into it, then plant them in a Whopper Bio Dome or small pot. They'll root like nobody's business!) Geraniums are the essence of summer for many of us gardeners. Their very scent -- a sort of garden-y aroma, not a floral but somewhat peppery and earthy -- signals the arrival of summer. Nothing is more cheerful in pots marching up the porch steps or in window boxes leaning out over the garden. And they are a terrific bedding plant for full sun or light shade!