Take another look at the garden stalwarts.

I've written about hardy geraniums before, but they are such valuable garden plants that I feel they deserve a regular mention, so here they are again.

By hardy geraniums I mean the garden perennials, with their soft foliage and cranesbill flowers, as opposed to greenhouse or bedding varieties which are more correctly known as pelargoniums.

There are literally hundreds of species, subspecies and cultivated varieties of geranium (the Plantfinder lists nine-and-a-half pages of them - that's approximately 950 different taxa!). Many of these are rare and difficult to find, but even the most common are worth a place in the garden, requiring nothing special in the way of soil type, cultivation or attention. They are easily propagated by dividing the clumps in spring, or by sowing seed in containers out of doors in the autumn.

I have come across several new varieties since I wrote my first article about geraniums (well, new to me anyway). One of the best is Geranium phaeum Samobor'; like most G. phaeum varieties it flowers best in the spring but, by clipping off the flower heads as they go over, I have managed to have flowers almost continuously up to the time of writing. The leaves are its crowning glory, dark green, deeply cut and decorated with handsome purple blotches - they will last well into the autumn.

Geranium Black Beauty' is another plant with excellent leaf shape. It's a variety of Geranium biuncinatum (no, I've never heard of it either), the whole leaf is purple and very finely divided, contrasting well with pale blue flowers. I came across this plant recently at Holehird, near Windermere, and have yet to find it for sale anywhere.

Despite all the new introductions, many of the older species and cultivars remain firm favourites. For unusual foliage it is hard to beat Geranium renardii, a plant originally from the Caucasus. Its leaves are slightly wrinkled, velvety and grey-green in colour, the flowers are pale lavender, boldly veined with deep violet.

One of the most popular hybrids is Geranium x cantabrigiense. It quickly forms dense mats of foliage, huge numbers of deep pink flowers are produced throughout the spring and early summer, to be followed by decorative seed heads in mid-summer.

Fellow geranium enthusiasts might like to try the following books: The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hardy Geraniums, by Trevor Bath and Joy Jones.

Hardy Geraniums, by Peter F. Yeo.

National Collections of geraniums can be seen at: Catforth Gardens, near Preston (open by appointment, tel 01772-690561).

Coombland Gardens, Coneyhurst, Sussex (open weekdays and by appointment, tel 01403-741727).

East Lambrook Manor in Somerset (open daily Mar-Sept).

Cambridge Botanic Gardens (open throughout the year).

Jobs for this week:

Clip beech and yew hedges this month. Make sure there are no late birds nesting in your hedge before you start to clip, wait until all the fledglings have left before beginning.

Take advantage of any fine, dry weather to treat timber benches, trellises and fences with a plant-friendly wood preservative.

Pick French and runner beans regularly once they begin to crop; removing pods encourages new ones to form. Ditto with courgettes.