Your geranium is perfectly fine!! 'Rozanne' is often described as having "mottled" or "marbled" foliage and it is more or less expected, specially early in the growing season.

Thanks, gg, that’s very reassuring! As much as I like to complain about Rozanne’s wild and untamed habit in my garden, she’s one of my favorites for color and long season of blooms. :-)

CMV will cause leaf distortion as well as distinctive mottling.While I don't think you have a mosaic virus, I would keep an eye on Rozanne. GardenGal does point out the possibility of anomalous foliage, especially at this time in the season, so I wouldn't be in a rush to assume the worst...but I would be keeping close watch, especially if other specimens in the garden are not showing leaf yellowing. But then again - that is always our job as gardeners...

Not sure how anomalous that mottled foliage really is as it is referred to by most sources and is certainly a repeated spring phenomenon in my garden!

"Huge, glowing violet blue, saucer-shaped flowers with distinctive white eyes and reddish-purple veining are held above mounds of deep green foliage that is slightly marbled with chartreuse."

"Mounded, slightly marbled foliage turns attractively red in fall."

"Deeply cut, slightly marbled, deep green foliage."

"Lush mound of deep green foliage is lightly marbled chartreuse."

Rozanne is not known to have any significant disease issues. CMV would be at the bottom of my list of possibilities.

Thanks, rosaprimula, I am definitely keeping an eye on it. This is the only one out of 15 or so that looks like this; in fact, it was also like this last year, but otherwise grew and bloomed just fine, with no leaf or bloom distortion. I had read that aphids could be a vector for cmv in perennial geraniums, so I’m keeping a close watch; I had some of those nasty things on my heliopsis last year and hope to not experience them again.

O I really doubt you have any reason to worry. I thought I was clear that CMV was very unlikely (but has been on my mind lately since one of my gardening friends did indeed have a couple of CMV affected curcubits (aphid vector). Nonetheless, i would pay attention out of curiosity more than concern. I might have considered some physiological damage if you hadn't seen it last year also.

It is aphid season here too - my seedling eryngiums have been mangled somewhat. Fortunately, they are just about robust enough to squash the little horrors in my fingers. Between aphid squashing and the nightlyslug hunt and kill patrols, pigeons eating all the new growth on my cherries, it is all getting to feel a bit murderous in the garden.

A bit OT @lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan but did you know how esteemed is your Rozanne Geranium?

https://gpnmag.com/news/geranium-rozanne-wins-rhs-plant-centenary/

Oh wow, @rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)!!! I had no idea! I’ve recommended Rozanne to several neighbors and relatives, it’s such an easy-care perennial, and it simply can’t be beat for weeks (months!) of non-stop blooms.

@rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9, I, too, often feel as if I’m on a murderous rampage in my garden! I’ve spent the last week peeling open the stuck-together leaves of my Annabelle hydrangeas and squishing the leaftier larvae within. And today I saw some squiggly white nastiness all over (and I do mean all over) some overgrown boxwood shrubs I’ve been thinking about getting rid of. It pushed me over the edge and I dismembered the three of them and had my husband haul the carnage off to the woods.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), last year was the first year I ever noticed aphids in my garden, courtesy of heliopsis ”Tuscan Sun”. I had read the warnings posted by rouge21, but I was tempted by the long season of blooms and just had to try them for myself. Sure enough, those little red nasties covered my plants by summer’s end. Yuck.

I had read the warnings posted by rouge21, but I was tempted by the long season of blooms and just had to try them for myself.

For sure you had to give it a go as these heliopsis plants are often such incredible bloom machines....especially TSun.

@rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a), yet even with your caveats and now my own unpleasant aphid experiences, I’ll still be on the lookout for heliopsis ”Bit of Honey” in garden centers this year. 😆

i was once told that a lot of variegated plants are technically virussed ... that it isnt necessarily a bad thing ...since it is entirely plant specific ... which i am sure was stated above ..

ken

Rozanne is not a "variegated" cultivar and its foliage coloring is not due to a virus. The early season mottling or marbling of the foliage is just a genetic trait that the plant seems to outgrow as the season progresses. Other hardy geraniums also display this trait to some degree...... wallichianum, pratense, phaeum and several newer hybrids.

Thanks, ken! I worry only because this specimen looks different than all the others, with the mottling being far more yellow and blotchy, with that blotchiness maintained throughout last year’s growing season. But, no difference with the blooms last year, so that’s a good sign. :-)

if it was a Dahlia, I would suspect virus,

but not with Geraniums. I was weeding today and noticed some Geranium (could actually be Rozanne) with yellow spots on its foliage, but so did some other plants like a jung red currant have "anemic" yellow foliage. we have an exceptionally wet and cold spring till now and my guess is that those are rather due to soil and nutrient issues, I expect them to clear up after the soil gets warm

Thanks, linaria! I did wonder about possible issues with nutrient uptake, though the others in the same bed are currently fine. Maybe I’ll try some fertilizer and see if that helps.