Wednesday 1 August 2012

A plethora of purple

I know that I have had a blog post about purple before, but looking round the garden tonight, I realised that purple has gradually become the dominant colour, taking over from the mass of pink in June and last month.  (There still is plenty of pink and some yellow and red too, but purple is the main colour.)  Above is my favourite hardy geranium 'Rozanne', who sprawls elegantly and seems to flower for ages.
Clematis 'Perle D'Azur', looking beautiful.
 A more burgundy purple from Buddleia Buzz 'Magenta'.
 Clematis 'Arabella'.
 Clematis 'Etoile Violette' with a lovely deep amethyst shade.
 The pom-pom flowers of Clematis viticella 'Purpurea Plena Elegans' which I really need to move into a bigger pot.  I do feed and water it well, but it does need more space.
 Verbena Bonariensis, which has self-seeded into a pot.  The flowers are a lilac purple, but I'm still including them.
The ever reliable hardy geranium 'Johnson's Blue' - as plantswoman Margery Fish once said, "If in doubt, plant a geranium" - good advice!
 A little campanula which grows like a weed in some gardens, but is very well behaved at the moment in mine.
How could I forget lavender angustifolia 'Hidcote'?  Rich purple colour and a wonderful scent.  This is a relatively new addition to my garden and I am going to try hard to look after it.
Purple is one of my favourite colours, and I am pleased to have been able to celebrate it.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, these are so beautiful, Ellie! Purple is my favorite color!
    Thank you for your sweet comments about my lino prints...I haven't put any washes on the ones to give away, I was going to ask the winner if they preferred a different color, or none at all...Definitely will put your name in the hat!
    Hugs,
    Anne

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    1. Dear Anne
      Thank you very much for your comment. I'm really pleased to be entered in your giveaway too. Fingers crossed!
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  2. Such lovely flowers - your garden must be a picture! Sadly green is the dominant colour in my garden, and I don't know the name of half of the plants.

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    1. Dear Gillian
      Thank you for your comment. Bits of my garden are definitely a picture, but as a whole, it is a bit of a muddle - which is why I choose to focus on specific flowers! Green is a lovely calming colour and such a good background for everything else. Without it, no garden can look good! As for knowing the names of plants, when I become really interested in something, I tend to become just a little bit obsessive and read up about it and sometimes the knowledge just sticks (of course, sometimes it doesn't). I also keep a garden file and try to write the names of the plants I buy or grow in it, just for future reference. This is so that when I eventually have my dream garden, I'll know exactly which plants I need. Well, that's the theory, anyway.
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  3. Isn't Clematis Arabella just the most prefect colour ... we have it tumbling over the front of the house. It's pruned back really hard in winter and comes back to delight us with ever more vigour each summer.

    But we have no lavender this summer, all our plants were killed off by the very hard, late frosts and we never got around to replacing them. I think perhaps that's a job for this weekend!

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    1. Dear Annie
      Thank you for your comment. You are so right about Clematis Arabella - very reliable and easy to look after. The colour is gorgeous too, being a mix of purple and blue with touches of pink sometimes. I hadn't got any lavender until I bought two pots of 'Hidcote' in June. They need to be potted on but have been flowering away happily with that evocative scent. I hope they will survive the winter and I will add lots of perlite or grit to the compost to ensure they have good drainage. Then it'll be a case of fingers crossed!
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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