Geums: two ladies, a tangerine, and some cocktails.

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1 May 2026

On 1 May 2026

This is not a tale of louche behaviour, but some of the plants I will be talking about. I started writing this on my own, but I am no longer solitary. Pablo, one of the two shop cats at Alexandra Palace Garden Centre has leapt onto the desk and placed a heavy paw on my keyboard. As he rubs his chin on the corner of my laptop screen I can see that his jet black fur is sprinkled with seeds. Observing the seeds I see they are covered in silky hairs, and each has an awn (a long bristle with a hook at the end). It is this structure by which they have hooked themselves on to the passing feline, thus distributing themselves away from their parent.

These seeds are the fruits a British native, the Common avens (Geum urbanum). This wildflower is also known as Wood avens because its native habitat includes woods, hedgerows, and shady banks. So why is the species name ‘urbanum’ meaning of the city? Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), the father of modern taxonomy, gave it this specific name because he noticed it growing in the streets of his town, Uppsala, in Sweden.

To gardeners it is a weed, a plant we have decided deserves no space. However, it is probably growing in your garden, even if it is completely paved. You will also find it growing in gaps where pavements abut front walls. I suspect they arrive in these niches on the furry feet of passing dogs returning from romps in local woods and parks.

Wood avens is a member of the Rose family. Its flowers have a very similar make-up to another family member, strawberries, but the five petals are yellow. They are borne on tall, wiry, slightly branching stems above a rosette made of hairy, green, lobed leaves. The gentle folds on the surface of the leaves reminds me of delicate folds of the parchment like skin inside Pablo’s ears, as he butts his head into my face to gain my attention. He is after more food.

Talking of which, Wood avens has a culinary connection. The name ‘Geum’ derives from the Greek ‘geno’ meaning to yield a pleasant aroma. If you pull one up and snap the thick rhizome you will notice it has a strong clove-like aroma. In earlier times the roots were prized for adding flavour to syrups and liquors, stews, soups, and desserts such as cooked apples.

Wood Avens might not be welcome in the garden, but many of their relatives are. Geum cultivars and hybrids are popular with gardeners because of their bright colours, large flowers and long flowering periods. Garden forms can be roughly divided into three groups on the basis of which wild species they most closely resemble.

The first group is centred on Geum rivale, another native European species, that has given rise to many choice forms. This clump-forming perennial has attractive nodding, bell-shaped flowers in shades of peach, pink, and orange-red. Geum hybrids ‘Leonard’s Variety’ and ‘Totally Tangerine’ are popular examples of this group. ‘Totally Tangerine’ is an exceptionally long-flowering variety that produces masses of tangerine-orange flowers from now through to autumn. As a sterile cultivar, it invests all its energy in to flowering and won’t self-seed.

The second group resemble Geum coccineum, a species from the mountains of the Balkans and Northern Turkey, with bright orange-red saucer-shaped flowers. Popular hybrids of this species include the compact orange ‘Borisii’, and the bright red-orange ‘Koi’.

The final group derives from Geum chilonese, (Chiloe Island avens) which comes from Chiloe Island, off the coast of Chile. This clump forming perennial produces scarlet, saucer-shaped flowers. It is the parent of two popular ladies – the golden flowered semi-double Geum ‘Lady Stratheden’ and the large, red-flowered, long flowering Geum ‘Mrs J Bradshaw’.

A few new geums. If you are looking for something refreshing and sophisticated then try a cocktail. The Geum Cocktail Series is a collection of hardy, compact plants producing large, semi-double flowers with ruffled petals in more muted shades. The varieties in this series are all named after cocktails, for example the peachy ‘Tequilla Sunrise’ and the pale pink, apricot and cream ‘Cosmopolitan’. They bloom from now until September and make superb border or container plants.

Why choose Geums? They are low maintenance clump forming plants that make a beautiful addition to any garden. They bring spring and summer colour to formal gardens, cottage-style planting, wildlife areas, and patios and containers. They thrive in moist but well-drained soils in full sun or partial shade, but don’t do well in dry soils.

Geums are easy-care, simply remove faded flowers regularly to encourage more buds and cut back the old stems after flowering. The foliage dies back to a basal rosette in winter, but the plant will bounce back in spring. Clumps need to be divided every few years, in spring or autumn, to prevent congestion. Dividing the plants is also a way of increasing your stock for free.

So why not swing by your local garden centre this Bank Holiday weekend and indulge in a cocktail or two? In the meantime, I had better go and find Pablo some snacks as he is beginning to look a bit peevish.