I'm not talking about the movie that showed the world that Oprah Winfrey could act as well as host a TV show. I'm talking about the actual color of purple, which is very symbolic for the Christian celebration of Easter and the Passion of Christ. Purple symbolizes royalty and is the color used to clothe a king.
Purple in the garden, from my perspective, has a unique role to play. The color ranges from a deep, sultry, velvety shade that may border on black, to light and airy periwinkle hues. Since purple covers such a broad band, it can be used to bridge the gap between seemingly unrelated colors.
Taking inventory of my garden,
I have much purple...more than I was aware of.
Of course, my orchids
show my preference for the intoxicating shades of purple.
Christieara Sharifa Alsagoff
Christieara Sharifa Alsagoff
Ground Orchid
Dendrobium
My first orchid that blooms every year for my birthday!
Phalaenopsis highlighted by bright and cheerful yellow!
Another favorite is my Queen Emma Crinum Lily.
This juvenile will grow quickly
to it's mammoth size once the rainy season comes.
I love the deep, dark tones of the leaves.
Her blossom is a pearly white
painted with streaks of deep purple on the underside
of each petal that appear pinkish on the upper side.
Each deep purple stamen is topped
with bright yellow pollen producing anthers.
The fragrance is intoxicating!!!
(Dear Blogger:
I'd like to embed a scratch-n-sniff here.
Please let me know when this feature is available.)
The Purple Queen blooms are small
but lovely when appreciated closely.
The leaf to the left of the Purple Queen bloom
is that of a Purple Velvet Plant,
or Gynura sarmentosa.
I love how the velvety layer of purple
highlights the deep green leaf.
The AMAZINGLY COOL bloom of
Tillandsia Ionantha is nothing less than spectacular!
The entire ball is in full crazy bloom right now,
appearing like a burst of fireworks!
Angelonia has a wonderful little bloom
resembling an angel with mouth wide open,
singing praises to her Heavenly Father!
The strength of Mexican Heather
is definitely in it's numbers.
The blooms are small and
would otherwise go unnoticed.
But the ground cover boasts a multitude
of little purple blossoms that stand out
against the backdrop of soft green foliage.
Ruellia is a lovely true purple.
It's appropriately known as Purple Showers
since the blooms wither and drop each day,
only to make way for new ones the following day.
Succulents are even more striking in purple!!
This variegated Bromelaid is extraordinarily striking!
This Passion Vine opens to a brilliant red, but...
the bud begins with distinct purple tones.
Even the cabbage in the veggie garden
shows lovely purple tones!
(wish I had a beautiful eggplant to boast!)
The lighter shades look more blue...
like this airy Plumbago and...
and this Blue Eyed Grass that grows wild in my yard.
(I'm always a bit confused
how the garden experts
categorize "blue" and "purple".
They lump them together,
which is what I've done here.
But seriously...
"Blue Eyed Grass" is blue, right?
Oh well, I'll agree with the "experts"
and call it a shade of purple for this post! HA!!!)
Happy Easter!!!
12 comments:
Happy Easter to you too! Love all your purple/blue? blooms. I have a baby Queen Emma I'm hoping will get big enough to bloom this year before the lubbers get it.
You have some gorgeous orchids.
I'm using my imagination and smelling the Crinum lily. It's the smell of Spring.
Love all the shades of purple - they all go well with green.
I realized this weekend that the majority of our blooms are purple/blue. I probably hadn't thought about it because there's so much variation in hue and intensity. I agree, providing you're not featuring 'skunk weed' on your blog, I think scratch and sniff blogs would be fabulous! ;)
I love blues/purples. I can't pick out just one - they're all fabulous! Of course, when blogger gets that 'scratch 'n sniff' feature, I may be able to determine my favorite then!
Definitely pretty in purple.
Liked your pictures, and you have a lovely orchid.
In our area you see a lot of purple in the gardens. A popular choice in gardens in our area is agapanthas, probably because it is such a low maintenance plant. When they bloom the whole area is covered in purple.
Hi Kimberley,
What a beautiful and 'purpley' post. I am most jealous of the tillandsia though, as they never flower over here.
Ooh, love all your purple/blue in your garden. I also found sometimes seems purple and blue are used interchangably. Purple and blue are my farvorite colors in garden. Your orchids are so gorgeous, and I also envy your Tillandsia Ionantha, just simply beautiful. Where do you find it? In the wild, or from nursery? I one I found from wild also set the long spike, but no flower :(
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter and I enjoyed your take on the color purple. Very nice.
Also, thank you so much for naming what each flower was. I thought for sure the very first flower was an African Violet, but I was wrong. Either way, it is lovely.
I tend to have more purple flowers in my garden than any other colour. I'm drawn to it I guess. :)
Kimberly - I am a "purple junkie"! I didn't start out that way, I swear. But every time I bought a plant - it seemed to have a purple 'theme'? I am (very impatiently) waiting for my PJM Rhododendron to bloom. It's iridescent purple blooms are worth the wait!
I'm happy there are so many purple enthusiasts! I never really realized until I took an inventory!!
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