Pelargoniums at Fibrex Nurseries

Part of the National Plant Collection of Pelargonium at Fibrex Nurseries

Fibrex Nurseries in Pebworth, Worcestershire (http://www.fibrex.co.uk/), is a family-run business that is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. Started by Hazel and Dick Key as a specialist Pelargonium nursery, it expanded to take on ferns and ivies, and is still the pre-eminent supplier of these three groups in the country as well as maintaining superbly grown and extremely comprehensive National Plant Collections of Hedera and Pelargonium. None of their specialities is perhaps as fashionable as it might be, but a visit now reveals the wonderful diversity of all three, especially the pelargoniums in all classes. I cannot believe that anyone, however prejudicedly anti-Pelargonium they may be, would not come away unconverted to the charms of at least one section of this wonderful genus.

Foliage of Pelargonium bowkeri

'Eskay Verglo' (Angel group) combines a pretty flower with beautifully crisped leaf margins

P. peltatum, the ancestor of ivy-leaved pelargoniums

'Romeo'  (regal)

The large heads and vivid scarlet of 'Paul Crampel' set a benchmark for 'red geraniums' for decades after its introduction in 1903.