OK folks, another catalog picture horror for you. My wife judy tells me that bashing on about faked up plant pictures in catalogs is getting tiresome. I don’t agree, but in the spirit of marital harmony I’ll just feature the sillier of the two I had planned for today (here’s the other). This is from the latest UK catalogue from van Meuwen.

But first let me say that just because the pictures are misleading, it doesn’t mean the plants are rubbish, it doesn’t mean that perfectly natural images couldn’t show what good plants they are. This is a good plant - just don’t expect it to grow like this.

Geranium ‘Double Jewel’ (click the image to enlarge) is a lovely double flowered form of the meadow cranesbill, Geranium pratense. It’s a little shorter than most forms of this species, which can reach 4ft/1.2m in height, but here the crown of the plant should probably be below the bottom of this pot – if they weren’t cut stems. It will look great in the garden – but it will never ever look like this.

This is a lovely plant, but can’t we just have a picture of it looking great in a border?

You can order plants of Geranium ‘Double Jewel’ from van Meuwen.