Thank you so much!! Yes, I looked up "pokeweed" and found pictures that were an exact match! A very interesting read, too-- looks like it can be poisonous, yet birds are immune. It is propagated by seed, so my theory is that birds ate the berries and dropped the seeds. They are always sitting in that tree, so that is probably why they started coming up right at the base of the tree. So funny on the timing (sprouting right after we planted to geraniums), which had me all confused.

Looks like I will have to wait until next summer to see if the geranium tubers come up!

Thank you again for the information!

Pull the pokeweed out now. It grows very fast with a tenaceous taproot. It's only poison when eaten.

Thank you for letting me know-- I will pull them today!

There are hundreds of different hardy Geraniums and I don't know of any which have tubers. Did you buy one of those plastic bags with a few roots in? They are often duds from the word go.

Bummer-- yes-- that's what they were.... I'm wondering if I should contact the company.... I'm afraid if I wait until next spring/early summer to see if they actually come up or not, it would be too late to do anything.... There has been no growth this so far, and I planted them about 2 months ago....

Sounds like an ebay purchase to me....where you get weird stuff.

No-- not eBay.... It was from Breck's website-- they sell mainly bulbs, but also offered Hardy Geraniums.....

They should have had green shoots when planted and started growing straight away. They are roots, not bulbs or tubers so they don't have a dry state they can survive. And they should have had a correct label, not just 'hardy Geranium'. That's like selling something simply labelled 'rose'.

Brecks is awful. I don't know how they're still in business.

There's actually a Geranium grown in gardens with the name G. tuberosum. That does, in fact grow from tubers. These are "fleshy, ovoid" and "5/8 in. thick" (Hortus Third).

Thank you! Yes I looked up G. tuberosum and this was the picture-- This is the same picture from Breck's website, except theirs was in mixed colors, so I'm glad.....

I did contact Breck's to ask them what their warranty was, and it is a life time warranty. So if nothing comes up I should still be okay-- I still have my receipts. I had also ordered iris and daffodil bulbs from them, so we will see.....

Thank you again for all the information!

Thanks, Embo. I'd not come across that species. It seems a fairly esoteric plant over here.

As to what Brecks were selling, I still don't think it's clear. I had a quick look at their website and they have several items just called 'mixed hardy Geranium' as well as a few named cultivars. They didn't have G tuberosum by name. Since the OP says the catalogue picture showed mixed colours I'd guess these were an unnamed mixture. Psychmjr, if you could link us to the actual item in Brecks catalogue maybe we can tell you what you bought. The flowers of many Geraniums look similar so although G tuberosum does exist, I'm a bit dubious that Brecks would be offering it. Neither of the pictures you posted shows G tuberosum.

The picture above is the picture that came up in the Bing search when I typed in G. tuberosum....

Here is what I ordered through Breck's:

ITEM #68186: HARDY GERANIUM MIXTURE SUPER SAK

To me these and the picture above look very similar.....

Geranium flowers all have the same structure so they might appear similar in pictures. But I don't don't see any G tuberosum in the Brecks picture. There are multiple species/cultivars/hybrids shown in the Brecks photo and it doesn't tell you much about what you are buying. They have just crammed about 8 different types together into an undifferentiated mixture, including Ann Folkard, a couple of endressi, phaeum 'Album', one of the blues, like Rozanne or Johnsons Blue and a couple more I can't id quickly.

I think G tuberosum, although it does exist, is possibly a red herring in this case and you got roots of some other more common cranesbill(s).

The Bing picture is inaccurate, as are many on the net. In my post above I gave a link to an accurate description and photo.

Thanks for the information-- I have contacted Breck's and written about the whole situation, and let them know that even with planting them in May I have not seen anything grow except poke weed....

With the earlier response from them about their lifetime guarantee, I will be curious to see what they say.

Thanks again!

Actually-- I literally just received a response from Brecks! They did say the geraniums should have sprouted by now... They are giving me a full credit for that purchase. Any suggestions for a 'safer', more reliable option? Perhaps something that is an actual bulb?

Hardy geraniums are great garden plants, have few if any growing issues and generally a very long bloom season. I'd look for a couple of actual plants (not "bulbs" or bare root starts but growing plants) to include in your garden.

While I don't normally shop for plants at my grocery store, they happened to have a limited but interesting selection of blooming gallon perennials for sale yesterday ($5.99 ea!!) so I picked up a Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frie' and a Crocosmia 'George Davidson'. That's about half the price they sell for at my nursery and even less than I could purchase them for with my discount!!

That's great! Unfortunately the credit is a "store credit" so I have to get the replacement from them.... Not ideal, but better than nothing....

Well, the next wave of shipping from BNB is bulbs.....and they usually do "real" bulbs better than plants (or that was my experience LONG ago...last time I ordered from there). Just don't repeat order for 'geraniums' :)

Due to dissatisfaction with another bulb company (and a credit), I'm giving BNB a shot with bulbs for me this year. I have many species of crocus, colchicum, and a few other lesser known bulbs coming from them this year. First time I've ordered from there in at least fiveteen years, but they're showing a good rating on Garden Watchdog now.

Sorry-- what is BNB?

Brent and Becky, whoops I misread Brecks for BNB, my mistake. I guess I saw what I wanted to see? Just read back and saw my mistake.

Ok, I stopped ordering from Brecks because of issues like you describe some twenty or more years ago...and I don't think they've improved. Good luck at finding something to spend your credit on.

yep, g.tuberosum is tuberous and goes into summer dormancy. A small flowered type, not unlike g.nodosum.