Continuing my look at plants new in the latest RHS Plant Finder which are listed by the most nurseries. Top of the list was Actaea ‘Misty Blue’, next came Geranium ‘Midnight Clouds’ and this week it’s the dwarf and prolific sun-lover Erodium ‘Freedom’.
One year old plants reach just over 10in/25cm in height, and develop a tight crown with the foliage also spreading out to just over 10in/25cm in width after twelve months. Each prettily dissected dark green leaf is split into nine triangular leaflets and makes a fine background for the flowers.
Carried on top of the plant from May to October, flowers are gathered in a mass of clusters with about eight blooms in each. Individual flowers are just over an inch/2.5cm across, pale pink in colour with magenta veins and a dark blotch at the base of the upper two petals which are also more brightly veined. Expect the plant to be covered in flowers.
Erodium ‘Freedom’ is happiest in full sun and a well drained soil and is ideal at the front of a sunny border, in a raised bed or even in a large trough.
It was selected in The Netherlands as part of an erodium breeding programme. Seed was collected from an uncommon Erodium hybrid, ‘France Choice’, pollinated by an unnamed Erodium hybrid and this plant chosen from the resulting seedlings.
Erodium ‘Freedom’ is available from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries.