Purple

Time to notice some of the color in the garden, mainly from the blooms. Yes, green abounds here, but it's the canvas for the daubs of pigment that the flowers provide.

Today's color is "purple", but think of it as a bit broader than that, encompassing lavenders and pinks too.

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I'm starting with the new-for-me water hyacinth:

I had a feeling this vigorous water plant would bloom based on its name, but it still surprised me to see this the other morning:

What a beauty!

What doesn't surprise me every year are the Buddleia (a name I can never spell correctly the first time), or "butterfly bush" blooms:

Super-reliable, hardy shrubs that I cut down to the ground every year, and am rewarded with sweet-smelling blooms all summer long (with some deadheading or pruning).

I've got five or more of these, some dark purple, some pink, and some a mixture -- these others grew from seed.

Finally, the king of early-summer purples in my yard, the Agastache foeniculum is starting to fade away...

...but there's still enough there for the bees!

I haven't tried this before, but I'm going to prune a bunch of these very soon to see if I get a second flush of blooms.

More colors to come over the next few days!

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