The Color Purple

Hmmmmmmm.  Let's see.  What to do first:  put saddles on those smug mosquitoes hovering in the floodwaters,  prepare an arsenal of chemicals to defend against plague of locust that will surely arrive any day now, or just sit on a bench and await the sound of hooves as the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse ride up.

Record ice and snow in December, record hail in May and record flooding in June makes even this
most confirmed gardener want to turn in her trowel, and become ever so paranoid about what that tantrum-throwing Mother Nature has in store for the rest of the summer.

So much for the romance of summer in the South.  (With my apologies to my good friends at Southern Living....).

As a coping mechanism, I've decided (in lieu of, or in addition to, heavy medication) to think

about purple.  Not the innocent every-little-girl-loves-pink-and-purple kind of way, but a more
sophisticated, sensual, and of course, horticultural sort of way:  the pale whisper of lavender in
the spire of a sage blossom, the deep regal richness in the leaf of a coleus or the blossom of
a dahlia, or the happy purple in the bell of the campanula.  Purple will gladly play solo in
a composition of blooms, but is at its best when being more companionable.  Holding its own with
a vibrant orange, its opposite on the color wheel, or being every so supportive in a marriage with
chartreuse...........a lemon-lime with grape flavoring that may be my favorite color combination
in the whole gardening world.


starting with this beautiful ajuga......common, yes, but ever so useful     and happy to look up to
that dramatic allium 'Schubertii'.


I wasn't wrong, was I?  This creeping phlox,  'Emerald Blue',  plays happily with the delicate
foliage of this golden feverfew I think.


Here's a deep purple hyacinth for your soul..........Peter Stuyvesant, I believe.  (Say that three
times fast:  Peter Stuyvesant Hyacinth, Peter Stuyvesant Hyacinth.....)


How about this ambitious climbing clematis 'President'?



Purple and white impressionism, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, just lovely.


Sage can do as much for your garden as it does for your turkey.  Satiety of a different form.


I would call this combination stunning, wouldn't you?


Don't you love the orange peaking from behind?  Are you inspired to plant/plan/purchase in purple?

Hope so.

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