by

Purple Garden Palooza

garden triangle may

Purple garden palooza

Peter Piper may have picked a peck of pickled peppers, but I’m picking purple petals from my perfect garden. It’s a purple palooza.

Ha! Say that three times.

The small corner garden near the walkway to our door looks like royalty. It’s awash in three shades of purple, with dots of orange and green accents. Last year’s sweet peas re-seeded and came back in a royal flush.

sweet peas

Sweet peas

sweet pea flower gives way to seed

Sweet pea flowers give way to seed pods

They’re in good company too. Love-in-a-Mist scattered seeds everywhere and now lines the sidewalk in a purple haze. Pay no attention to the dying grass in the background. The lawn is on its way out.

love in a mist lining the sidewalk

Self-seeding love-in-a-mist line the walkway

The Statice flowered early this year, showing pearly white blooms in the center of the calyx.  I love the way they compliment each other.

statice with flowers

Statice: calyx and flowers

One California poppy grows at the edge, but I fear a dog is lifting its leg once a day as the foliage is looking a bit…tired. The plant is still hanging in there though. Go Team Violet! Go state flower!

california poppy

California poppy wrapped up for the night

love in a mist closeup

Love-in-a-mist blooms and seed pods

Things you many not know:

(I didn’t)

The word ‘purple’ comes from the Old English word purpul which derives from the Latin purpura, in turn from the Greek πορφύρα (porphura), name of the Tyrian purple dye manufactured in classical antiquity from a mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail.-Wikipedia

Today, science has revealed much more about purple than our ancestors ever realized: Purple is the most powerful visible wavelength of electromagnetic energy. It’s just a few steps away from x-rays and gamma rays. – Color Matters

The color purple is a rare occurring color in nature and as a result is often seen as having sacred meaning. Lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers are considered delicate and precious. –Bourn Creative

36 thoughts on “Purple Garden Palooza”

  1. Your garden is looking so pretty Alys! Did you know that if you keep picking your sweetpeas and don’t let them set seed, they will keep flowering right through summer? They are remarkably hardy [well, in my part of the world any way] I adored having vases and bowls full of their sweet perfume in every room for the first three months of the year! Towards the end I let the seed set and am hopeful I might get myself some volunteers for next summer 🙂

    Lots of interesting thoughts on the colour purple in this post. Purple is also associated with the 6th chakra and ancient temple knowledge associated it with the gods and those who served them. Nowadays purple is still associated with wisdom. The whole purple hair and purple hat thing has it’s roots in the thought that age brings wisdom and wisdom is nothing if it is not tempered with fun!

    Are you getting at least some little bits of rain? xoxo

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Pauline, I did not know that. This is my first successful crop. Boomdee sent me the seeds last year, but I think I planted too late. I only had a few, half-hearted blooms.

      Should I remove the seed pods or just cut back the flowers? Thank you for passing this on.

      Oh, I love that bit about wisdom and age. I didn’t realize that that is where the purple hat reference came from. It’s such a rich color.

      We had a fizzle of rain here in San Jose, a bit more about 100 miles north of us. We’ve had several overcast days and the strangest May I can remember: unseasonably hot, then unseasonable cold.

      What’s up with your weather?

      Missing you so. xoxo

      Like

      Reply

      • Once the seeds have set the plant has completed its generational drive so to speak, so the best way is to keep picking the flowers – and the more you pick, the more it will bloom. I’d try snipping the seed pods off at this point – especially if the vine is thriving. I don’t know if it will work, but they will look lovely in a vase too.

        Our weather seems to be a bit like yours. We are a month from the shortest day yet there are still leaves on trees and lots of warm sunny days interspersed with antarctic blasts…… very odd!

        I miss you too – wish we could catch up over a cup of tea!

        Like

        Reply

  2. Interesting facts about purple. And I didn’t realise it was rare in nature…. I must have the most purple in my garden in the known universe with all the phacelia which self-sowed 🙂

    Your sweet peas look gorgeous, anyway!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. As Pauline says, pick those babies and enjoy them. Then later in the summer or fall if the vines last, let the flowers turn into seed pods. The pods will dry on the vine and come apart (explode, really) and black seeds will fall out and create new sweet peas next year. They seed prolifically, so you should have no worries. Enjoy!

    Like

    Reply

  5. You’re a sweet sister to plant a garden with Sharon in mind. Have you ever heard the version of Deep Purple written in 1939? It was on a Marie Osmond record I had as a teen.

    When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
    And the stars begin to twinkle in the night
    In the mist of a memory you wander on back to me
    Breathing my name with a sigh

    😀 Cute hey?

    I’ve never let my Sweet Peas go to seed so I don’t really know if they’d come back in spring here. I tend to think not, since they have such specific planting criteria. I had great luck with poppies reseeding but those seed were so minuscule, they probably got covered in dust or dirt blown over them. I bought my Sweet Pea seeds last week, they’re soaking for 5 days now. HA. I generally do what Pauline does. I snip and snip and snip until October. Then, when they seem mostly spent, I let them dry out and haul down all the vines. One day in the garden and my back was really sore. I’m totally out of shape xo K

    Like

    Reply

    • I will have to look up that song. Marie Osmond, eh? Right now I can’t get Jimmy Hendrix Purple Haze out of my head. LOL

      Thanks for sharing the line of verse. I miss reading poetry and really should work that into my days more.

      I’m excited to see your sweet peas grow up your lovely trellis. I wasn’t expecting the purple ones to grow, so had to think on my feet trellis wise. Right now they’re supported with a few stakes. I love them and I love you for sending them. Sharon gets a show whenever she stops by, and since she can’t get out into our back garden without monumental effort, it’s nice to have them right where they are.

      I better get busy cutting flowers. Oh, the hardship. 😉

      xoxoxooxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • The netting is I use for sweet peas is extremely inexpensive. I think it was 12′ wide by 7′ high for $9.00 They come longer, maybe next year, I’ll double down. I’m glad you’ve got them in a spot for Sharon to see from the window. Again, thoughtful and caring, you xoxo.

        Like

        Reply

  6. I love the purple statice. I’m looking for some. I knew some of what Pauline said about the color purple. Believe it or not, a quilter gave me seeds for Love in the mist yesterday! My iris’s bloomed and went so quickly I didn’t get a good photo with all the rain. I love all you lacy purple flowers. And yes, the weather is weird everywhere. We get 60 and 80+ in the same week.

    Like

    Reply

    • Oh my gosh, Marlene. What a coincidence. Mine originally came from a mixed packet of seeds. They did okay year one, then took over the garden year two. They’re everywhere, and I love them. I’m so excited you have some to plant. Can’t wait to see yours growing in Sleepy Hollow.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I’m looking forward to it too. Have the front hoed out to put rock up against the house so When I finally get it painted this summer, the mud won’t splash back. Last fall I had to move all the roses forward as they were too close to the house to paint. Put down weed block there and cut the grass (weeds)…again. Tomorrow we rent the trailer and get the rock and I spend the day shoveling it out. Next comes the bark mulch for the rest of the yard so I can build planter boxes in certain areas and on and on and on. You know the drill. One thing leads to another. I found out that the vinegar and dawn soap DOES kill the weeds where you can’t get to them to pull them. It doesn’t take much and it’s not roundup. 🙂

        Like

        Reply

        • I don’t know how you do it. My back and neck simply couldn’t keep the pace that you keep. I’m beyond impressed. You’ve put a lot of careful planning into this, Marlene. It will be a stunning celebration of all your hard work when you’re done. I can’t wait to see photos, and hope you’re remembering to take pics along the way.

          Good to know about vinegar and dawn soap. Vinegar has so many good uses.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  7. Your front garden is looking really pretty and welcoming! I wonder what you will replace the grass with… gravel? I can imagine that, with fleshy drought- proof plants dotted throughout, and maybe a cactus?
    😉 The statice with the white flowers among the purple is lovely.

    Like

    Reply

  8. Uh oh. I guess no one told you how I feel about purple, huh? No purple in my garden! Well, except the thyme. And the irises. It’s interesting to know you studied color theory. I have a degree in art, too but we didn’t take classes in theory–everything I’ve heard is that those courses are hard!

    Like

    Reply

    • I’ve always loved color and find the attributes and history behind color choices fascinating. On stage, for instance, a villian or unlikeable character would often wear green. It’s a hard color to light and would have the desired effect of making the character look drawn. Blue looks good on everyone, regardless of skin tone, so is often the choice for uniforms. It also lends an air of sincerity. Your skin color determines what colors look best based on the undertones. Pale skin tends to have bluish undertones, whereas dark skin has yellowish undertones. It’s why I look good wearing blue, green and purple, and someone with dark skin looks good in red, yellow and orange, colors that wash me out. I also learned that 80% of people prefer warm colors and 20% prefer cool ones. If you put someone with a warm preference in a blue room, they won’t be as comfortable as their cool-color loving counterpart.

      Anyway…I could go on and on. My name is Alys, and I’m a color addict.

      Like

      Reply

  10. Alys, I’m nominating you for the Sunshine Award. You don’t have to do a thing (by my rules) except accept it and put it’s little photo on your next blog. Should you wish to nominate someone else, I won’t stop you, but when I got the award, I thought of Kerry and you! I hope you both enjoy.

    Like

    Reply

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment, below.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.