Mrs Bradshaw has been the best-loved geum in British cottage gardens since before 1906, a scarlet-red double form of Geum chiloense on thin dancing stems. She is rare as a dried flower, and for a reason worth explaining.Most things sold as dried geum are the seed heads, harvested after the petals have fallen and valued for the star-shaped burr. That is a perfectly good product and it is not this one. We cut ours in full flower, at peak bloom before the outer petals start to age, because the flower is the whole point of the plant. The fully double form is what makes it possible: all those layers of petal hold their structure through drying where a single flower would collapse to a flat disc. It is the harder harvest and the more fragile result.Bunches are roughly 10 stems at 40 to 50cm. This is a flower for close work rather than across a room, so it earns its place in buttonholes, bud vases, wreath focal points and the intricate corners of a mixed bouquet where you want deep colour without bulk. Handle it carefully. The stems are thin and wiry and the doubled petals go delicate at the edges once fully dry, so hold it by the base of the bunch and keep it out of direct sun.
