Thursday, June 5, 2008

These Blues Feel Good

Lavender has been one of my favorite colors since I was a small girl. My bedroom was painted this pale purplish-blue color in my very first bedroom, and my favorite crayon color was one of the "new" colors back in the late 80's called "cerulean." I grew up just blocks from the ocean, and some of the first flowers I remember were a sea of an azure-hued agapanthus that grew outside my back door. I love the colors of demin. One of the first plants I grew was lobelia beneath a small Norfolk Pine I named "Tree;" she died in the move to wisconsin, but he baby 'Tree" lives on my front porch in the summer, and outside our bedroom door in the winter. Yup, purple-blues of all sorts jive with me.

When we moved into our home and I started my garden, I sought any and all things blue to plant. Not much has changed in the last 6 years; I'm still planting blue & purple flowers. I've even added bluish foliage such as the silvery leaves of lamb's ear, sedum "blue spruce," or the purple tones of purple heart, wandering jew, and persian shield--all welcome in my garden. I still have lobelia growing beneath my Burgmansia this year. I love to pair blue with yellow, and orange, and as the season advances some of those combinations should surface. Right now, though, some purplish blue flowers are stealing the show out there... and I could not resist but to share.

One my largest clematis plants opened it's first flower yesterday. I think the variety is "Violet Charm," but I'm in the process identifying it for sure. No matter the name, she's a beauty! She'll be covered in dozens of blooms in the coming weeks.









Clematis "Elsa Spath;" another flower just opened. It's untouched from the sun yet, no fading. Such a deep violet blue color.


Columbine, blue on a mixed plant.

My bohemoth Iris. Like I mentioned before, these plants have been in my garden since we bought the house. They have not bloomed once, and we've lived here since 2003. After moving them, and reinvigorating them in the process, I guess all that pent up bloom energy created this mammoth bloom. Or are all Iris this big and I've just never been close enough? LOL.









Just so you have an idea of the flower's size, here's my hand:

Another Iris like it opens behind german chamomile & bachelor's buttons. The chamomile flowers are very tiny, like nickels, so you can see this Iris will be huge, too.

Another delphinium opens up. Can't wait to see it...

More of dark bee dark blue magic fountain delphinium; not getting old to me yet. :)

Another unidentified clematis. I have some folks telling me it could be "Royalty" or "Daniel Deronda."





Have a happy gardening day!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

gorgeous flowers!

Arlene,

East Bremerton flowers