Lavender blue and garlic blossom purple

Is anyone else mesmerized with the cool tones of purple and blue flowers as much as I am? What is it about those colors on a flower that makes me swoon? They always have, and they always will.

Last year, a 5-inch+ diameter garlic blossom volunteer showed up growing next to the pond. I loved it so much I didn't dig up the garlic bulb to use in the kitchen. Instead it stayed in the ground... and multiplied. This year I have THREE blossoms to enjoy! 

I know that I could probably grow more showy alliums, but I don't ever seem to get around to buying and putting in the bulbs in the fall.

Maybe I love blue and blue-ish purple flowers so much because of one of my favorite childhood songs--the 1948 recording of Burl Ives singing Lavender Blue for the little-known Disney film "So Dear To My Heart".

Mr. Ives restful voice singing the words "Lavender blue, dilly dilly... lavender green... If I were king, dilly dilly... I'd need a queen" would tug at my little heart strings and make my insides ache. Even as a 4 year old child, there were some things that would do that to me. Sometimes my eyes would tear up as I listened to the scratchy record play on my little portable phonograph with one speaker. The sentiment truly would pierce me to my core.

All those hundreds of times listening to Burl Ives and imagining what lavender blue and lavender green must look like... I didn't know because I couldn't remember every seeing real lavender before (I wouldn't until I was a 10 or 11). I only knew the colors from my box of Crayola crayons. Thinking of those colors on flowers seemed so magical.

Maybe that's why I love blue flowers so much.

If you're a lover of blue blooms, why do you think you love them so much?


Click here or below to listen to the version of "Lavender Blue" I listened to as a child

The royal purple robes of the Japanese water iris have unfurled

When the weather has warmed enough to coax them from their hibernation, the Japanese water iris send forth green spears. I wait and wait for the day when they unfurl their regal glory. That day came this week. And the brilliance of the iris' purple robes is unrivaled by anything else in the garden.

Prints, canvases and greeting cards of the above art available here

I know spring is near when the hardenbergia blooms

"Dreaming in purple watercolors"

digitally painted photograph by Cindy Garber Iverson

The photo above is one I created in 2009 from a photograph I took while walking our street. The neighbor had a wonderful climbing vine that was covered in this tiny purple flowers that grew on a pergola right on the sidewalk.

After falling in love with the teeny tiny orchid-like blooms, I did some investigation and found out that the vine is called Hardenbergia violacea or "Happy Wanderer" and acquired two for my own garden. Their are going on their second spring here at Rosehaven Cottage.

Because I've been recovering from surgery for the past 2 weeks (click here to read more about that), I haven't been out walking the garden looking for blooms like I usually do in mid-February. Imagine my delighted surprise when I looked out my studio window to see swathes of purple billowing up on their fence-line trellises!

Spring is definitely near when the hardenbergia blooms.

I used my own texture "Irridescence" to create the above digitally painted photograph.
This and other textures are available for free download by clicking here to go to
the Rosehaven Cottage Digital Download Shop

A little bit of sleuthing...

Click the image to see it larger

My neighbor's wonderful purple climber (which I featured in my last post) has me quite smitten. I've been so taken with it this year that I decided I HAD to find out what it was! As I've driven around town, I've seen glimpses of it in other landscapes. And then after publishing the last post, I received all of your comments asking the same question, "What is it?"

Taking the bull by the horns, I went down to our local nursery today and found it! It is a Hardenbergia violacea. Its common name is "Happy Wanderer". The label said that it blooms from fall to late spring and is a great climber for winter color. Well, I have photographic evidence above that this is true.

I am so enamored with it now, that I will for sure be getting at least one for the back garden. I just need to find a better specimen than the ones I saw today which were a bit too straggly and sad looking. I WILL find one though. And it WILL be going in to the back garden. It's now no longer a question of "if" but "when".

Dreaming in purple watercolors

Click image to see it larger
Used my free texture Birdbath pedestal 1

Our neighbor up the street has this wonderful climbing vine that is covered in tiny purple flowers. It grows on a pergola right on the sidewalk and I can see the profusion of purple from down the street. I decided to walk up and take some shots. Then I decided to get creative with the shots I took. Now I'm thinking I need to get one (or two) of these vines for myself. I have the perfect spot for them too.

Cool Flowers on a Hot Sunday Garden Walk

Above: The view today of the front garden path leading from our front door out to the pergola

This weekend is unseasonably warm in our part of the world. The sun is bright and the air is bordering on oppressively hot. We're having to run the air-conditioner for the first time this year because the temperature monitor reads 87 F (30.5 C) in the shade. We get the odd hot weekend in spring here in the Bay Area so this isn't really unusual. It will cool off again in a day or so as the winds shift and the cool air blows in from off the Pacific Ocean.

Despite the heat, I went out in the garden to take photos of some of the spectacular blooms that have been coaxed open quickly by the warmth of the sun. And I found little pockets of "cool" in the blues and purples of the blooms around the garden. I've written before that I have a weakness for all blooms that are blue or blue-ish in hue. You can imagine how tickled "blue" I am with the current state of the garden.

My bearded iris are doing very well this year. In fact, many of them are blooming for the first time EVER despite being in the ground and producing spears for years prior to this. I'd begun to lose hope that I'd ever see a bloom and figured I'd just have to enjoy the great dagger-shaped foliage of the iris (which I love).

But this year has been a good year for the bearded iris (guess they just needed to get acclimated). And as they've bloomed they've each been a little tiny surprise package for me because I had forgotten what colors I planted! Add to that all the moves I'd done to the rhizomes from one part of the garden to another, and I've lost track of everything all together in the bearded iris department! I know. Master gardeners much be cringing as they read this. At least I'm admitting it right?


Anyway...

This bearded iris may be a Dover Beach (I know I planted that variety at one time) but I don't think it is because the Dover Beach has a whiter top to it and less yellow on the beards than this one has.

Did you know that bearded iris have a "fragrance"? It's not the scent most people would consider to be a "fragrance", but like the other spring flower, the daffodil, bearded iris have a wonderful fresh scent that seems to just say "spring" for me. It's kind of like the smell that hits you when you walk into a florist shop but more distinct and uniquely "iris".

Did you also know that a lot of bearded iris have a pearlescent quality to their petals? So when you look at one in the right light, the petals glisten and glint like someone has sprinkled them with a pinch of pixie dust. If you enlarge the close-up photo at right you may be able to see the glistening on the petals at the top.

Moving on from the iris...

I am thrilled to bits that my Blue Ribbon rose is in bloom! It's blooms have a wonderful nostalgic rose scent that smells just like the rose scented lotions, potions and perfumes my Grammy used to have on her dressing table. When I breathe it in, the heirloom essence takes me back to times that were even before I was.

This favorite rose is a great producer that has about 2-3 really good "shows" each year. The blooms come out in large groups, put on a grand show, and then the rosebush waits for a month or two before its encore performance(s).

I like this rose because of its dark glossy foliage. Roses with dark glossy foliage tend to be the most disease resistant and trouble-free of all roses. So when I'm choosing a bareroot rose at the nursery, I check the package to see what the description of the leaves is and whether it says "dark glossy foliage" or something to that effect. If it doesn't, then it doesn't matter how much I love the photo on the front of the package. I put it back on the nursery shelf for someone else to buy and fuss over. I'll take naturally trouble-free roses anyday, thank you very much. And this Blue Ribbon rose is of that ilk. Combine that with being a "blue" flower and you've got a true winner in my book!

Now I'm going to go and relax in the air-conditioned living room with Hubby and wait out this heat until the evening brings cool breezes off the water.