PlantFiles: Herb Robert, Redshank, Bloodwort, Fox Geranium, Red Robin
Geranium robertianum

This plant is extremely invasive and should not be offered for sale or trade. It will completely cover an area choking out all other plants.

invasive exotic which has escaped to the woods and crowds out native woodland plants. Its also too weedy and stinky to be a good garden plant. It should not be planted and should be pulled out whenever possible.

Is it a carrot, parsley, baby giant hogweed, poison hemlock? Doesn't everything look the same? Nice flowers...if it's the only plant you want in your garden. Think of it as a more hateful vinca...

I have been trying to track the name of this one down for the last 10 years. I couldn't forgive that smell, either - it was so irritating that I tried to take them all out after a while. It never completely worked out but that's ok. Summer here may be too dry for the plant to thrive but it perseveres - autumn comes and I'll find a few seedlings once more flourishing in little spaces under the bushes!

I came here to comment on what a horrible smell comes from any crushed plant parts. What has happened instead is that I can easily shift to enjoying the appearance - because it certainly IS pretty enough. It is just that every place I see it reminds me of the nasty smell. Thank you, DGers, for giving me a mind set change.

This plant is VERY invasive in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and should not be planted, at least in Washington and Oregon under any circumstances.

This is the most prolific weed I've ever had in my garden. And to think that I bought it at a nursery and planted it myself.
Year One: little growth, no flowers
Year Two: prolific growth with many little pink flowers, not particularly attractive, pulled it out in favor of another geranium which has been much more beatiful
Year Three: thousands of weeds in my garden - in the gravel walkway, in the rock wall, sprouting under other plants, everywhere, all summer long, in wave after wave
Year Four: in spite of last year diligently pulling every weed before it went to seed, this year there were still many hundreds of sprouts, all summer long
Year Five: roughly a hundred, at least managable now

Don't even think about introducing this plant to your garden.

In dry shade this plant grows to about six inches tall and wide and is well mannered. HOWEVER, some got into my wet shade garden and is now 2 ft tall and wide and is taking over. I hate to pull it but I'm going to have to.

I think the lacy foliage and cute flowers of herb robert are beautiful, but this plant is *so* invasive where I live (Seattle). It's really hard to eradicate, and yes, it does have a bizarre stinky smell. Basically, I'm happy with it, unless it's in my yard.

This is a very attractive groundcover, but it does spread like crazy and it is invasive. Also known as 'Stinky Bob', I'm surprised no one has mentioned how bad this guy smells when it's leaves are crushed!

I am keeping it in some areas of my property (beneath 1/3 acre of Maples and other tall trees) because it looks great and blocks out crabgrass, curly dock, and all kinds of ugly, out of control weeds that used to be growing there, at the same time I have to keep pulling it up from the pond and flower garden area and really don't enjoy the smell while doing that. I definitely would not recommend someone go out and buy this plant because of how invasive it is (see link).

This has been a great understory plant in the "natural" areas of our garden. It self-seeds abundantly throughout the garden, but its shallow roots allow it to be easily pulled from the areas it is not wanted. I like to colonize it in large drifts among other geraniums and giant flowering raspberries.

A great plant for naturalistic or informal settings, possibly for pot culture as well.

Form, flowers and leaves attractive.

This is a weedy little guy and better suited for a wildflower garden. I put one tiny plant in the corner of my shady bed and he threw his seeds far and wide! It's a pretty plant with nice foliage and cute pink flowers but it can be too much of a good thing.

Common in shady places, it attains its full glory on walls or rocks where the sun turns stems and leaves brilliant crimson.