The names of plants are fascinating, aren't they! One chilly evening, I was sipping my tea and thumbing through Marjorie Harris' book, "Favorite Annuals", when a beautiful blue bloom pictured on one of the pages caught my attention. It was a brilliant violet-blue, with delicate fronds surrounding the flower, and the heading at the top of the page said "Nigella Damascena". Doesn't the name sound romantic and exotic? Hearing it, don't we think of the jewel boxes of the Arabian nights, overflowing with ropes of pearls, moss-green emerals, blood-red rubies, and perhaps mysterious blue gems called nigella damascena?
Well, this garden beauty is a plant, not a jewel, but still! What a dramatic name! The common name is just as picturesque: love-in-a-mist. This romantic name came from the look of the flower in the middle of the feathery foliage that surrounds it, giving it a very soft quality. This pretty annual is one that you and I should remember to plant next spring: it's one of those plants that needs very little attention from us. Love-in-a-mist grows easily from seed directly in our gardens. It likes a nice sunny location, but needs good drainage, because it doesn't like to have wet feet. We will start enjoying flowers about eight to ten weeks after we plant them, and we can keep on enjoying them for a long time, because the seed pods are very beautiful and can be dried for future flower arranging. When the puffy seed pods begin to develop burgundy stripes, we should cut them and hang them upside down to dry. They'd make a striking addition to any flower arrangement!
Love-in-a-mist is often blue, but there are pink and cream varieties as well. The variety that Marjorie lists in her book is called "Persian Jewels", a fitting name for this exotic beauty. Marjorie suggests planting them with plants that have gray-green foliage , and also planting them in a mass planting for real impact. She also suggests planting them with peonies and blue delphimiums; not only the colors, but the contrasts in foliage would be very beautiful.
It sounds like love-in-a-mist is an easy way for us to incorporate something very exotic in our gardens, so let's try and remember to plant them next spring!
The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, November 23 at the Legion. Please note the special meeting date. This is a members only meeting, but members, you can bring a guest. It's our annual general meeting, and it's a fun event! We have our meeting, a delicious supper, silent auction, and we'll all take a trip together to beautiful Scotland as Keith and I share our pictures with you. We loved the country, we loved the scenery, and we can't wait to tell you about it! Please call Liz at 782-2830 as soon as possible if you are planning to attend so that we can have numbers for supper.
Please be sure to wear your poppy with pride and gratitude this week. I read an interesting article about how John Mcrae wrote "In Flanders Fields", and it's touching to think that in the midst of battle and death, it was the gentle poppies blowing in the breeze that inspired him to write such a moving and memorable tribute to his fallen comrades. The poem is a tribute, still, to the brave men and women who continue to fight for freedom around the world, and the poppy is a symbol of their courage.
