Sow There! 4-11 Purple passion
Very few things happen instantaneously. At any moment in time, what we see is the result of different choices, circumstances, mistakes, serendipity, dumb luck or force of will.
In the case of my garden right now, what I see is the result of prolonged and systematic favoritism to purple.
The other day I was looking around my small patch of earth and smiling smugly at the performance of the spring garden.
It won’t always look like this — young and fresh. By the time summer comes along, I’ll be cranky and dragging the hose like a mercenary aid worker, trying to keep as many plants from withering as possible.
But right now, the plants are giving more reward than the nurturing I have given them.
Recently I was out in the yard in my bathrobe and Tommy commented, “Do you think we could plant something other than purple?”
I had to laugh, because of course he was right.
We could.
But why?
My yard is very small, so it didn’t take long for the purple plants to bully their way into the color scheme.
Plus, part of it is Tommy’s fault because he bought me purple plants for Valentine’s Day.
Nemesia is one of my favorite plants right now. We bought a one-gallon plant last year and it has spread to about a four-foot-wide clump. (Note: This power-plant also comes in other colors).
If it was some other plant, I might think it was greedy and needed to be hacked back just to keep it in place.
Perhaps I simply picked the perfect location for it, but I can’t remember the plant not blooming since I put it in the ground.
A little research on nemesia: It turns out it is treated as an annual, except in our climate.
Bonus.
(Nemesia. This is exactly what it looks like in my yard).
Other purple performers include the newly-planted Bacopa, which also comes in white.
About 60 purple bearded irises decided to bloom at the same time this year. Other plants in the plethora of purple include lavender, sage, lilac, rosemary and alyssum. A few of the purple tulips are still hanging in there.
I named my purple rose bush “Hollywood,” because we planted it on top of where I buried my beloved cat. That rose is just now in bud stage.
However, it’s not as silly as it sounds. There are other colors in my yard that have not been completely bullied out, but you wouldn’t realize that right now.
Monochromatic gardens aren’t anything new. Many frou-frou garden design books will have a chapter dedicated to gardens where one color dominates. Usually these feature white flowers, such as the one at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, England.
However, gardens like this usually come about more intentionally.
Other writers also praise the idea of having one section of a patio with potted plants of the same or similar colors.
Some people will choose plants in all pastel shades, so one corner of their yard looks like rainbow sherbet.
According to various Web sites I needed to research for this important topic, purple is the favorite color of about 75 percent of adolescent girls.
Who knew?