Cait's Garden

As June winds down, what was a sea of purple a week ago is now some dried husks in need of deadheading. Well, all but the catmint, which is still going strong. Through luck or accident, my garden is overwhelmingly “blue” in June. I use “blue” in quotation marks because almost no flowers billed as “blue” really are. Not blue like the sky, anyway. They are instead, inevitably, a shade of purple. The exception is delphiniums, which really are true blue. Unfortunately, they are too delicate a flower for my garden so I have to take a pass. Instead, I have plants, as shown in the photo, like catmint, several kinds of salvia, and even some highly ornamental clumps of chives (purple flowers AND you can eat them!).  These June bloomers tend to be very clump forming, creating masses or clouds of soft color. It really is quite stunning. Rather like a Monet painting. Now the changeover is occurring between the lush purple early summer bloomers and the showier, taller, wilder mid- to late-summer gang, such as the coneflowers, bee balm, and butterfly weed. What was once overwhelmingly purple will now be dotted with pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows…as it should be in the hot months when everything is more intense.