Postage : Seeds only $4 / Plants $20
A stunning winter annual from the deserts of California. Much loved by Vita Sackville-West, which should be enough enough commendation for anybody.
Dark sapphire blue cup like flowers are borne over velvety, dark green, scalloped leaves in loose rosettes. An exotic beauty most at home in poor sandy soils and low rainfall areas but tolerates clay and even a pot.
Scratch into bare sunny soil in autumn or early winter.
Each pack contains 50+ seeds.
Lush green rosettes of delicate, lacy, fern-like leaves are topped in spring by clusters of soft mauvy blue flowers, supped by every nectar feeding insect that passes. An easy winter annual from south western North America that is often grown as a green manure and to attract pollinators to fruit or vegetable crops.
Scratch seeds into bare sunny soil during autumn or early winter.
Each pack contains surplus of 50+ seeds.
Rigid, branched spikes of well spaced, soft blue, two lipped, 1cm, tubular flowers for most of the year from a small, stiff, open shrub with 2cm, finely toothed, bright green, sandpapery, broadly lance shaped leaves.
Like its South African parents S. scabra and S. chamelaeagnea it has no need of summer irrigation, but won't complain about it either, and is at its best in sandy soils though anything moderately well drained will be okay too.
Prune regularly for best results and denser form.
A sage from south eastern United States, most valued for its delicately showy spikes of azure flowers produced in the dog days of summer when others are gasping. The long, wandy, purplish stems, sparsely clothed in roughly textured, sage green, linear leaves, arise from a deeply rooted central stock in early spring and lengthen until flowering, then die off as they are being replaced with next seasons growth.
Beautiful, graceful and dependable, easily grown in any reasonably well drained soil where available summer moisture will dictate height and laxity.
Scatter through any garden area, perhaps with grasses and other summer flowering prairie perennials, for long lasting summer romance. More tasteful and satisfying than a trashy novel.
Sprawling stems bear unusual, almost triangular, cordate and broadly toothed, rubbery green leaves and branched spikes of small, pitcher shaped, electric blue flowers with protruding stamens throughout the warmer months. Never showy but greatly intriguing and in time makes an attractive groundcover. I've seen it used spilling over limestone retaining walls beneath high canopied trees, exposing its form and colour to great effect.
From high altitude in mountains southerly to the Gulf of Mexico, cold tolerant and growing merrily through winter while more warmth requiring species stall. For any well drained sheltered site. Little resistance to dryness but otherwise easy and improving with age.