Marian Boswall and the Blue Mist Flower, 78

Plant of the Week:

The blue Mist flower

I’m all about using the botanical name of a plant if it makes it easier than using the common name. In this case, however, I think the botanical name, Conoclinium coelestinum, is a bit of a mouthful.

Just to reimind us that common names ARE often unclear, this plant also goes by the names blue boneset and hardy ageratum. But upon spinning around the inter web for a few minutes, I was pleased to find out that no other plant seems to share the common name of blue mist flower, so we should be safe.

And here, instead of loading my just okay photographs of my not great mistflower, I got lucky and found these macro images on Unsplash by Yoksel Zok.

As I mentioned in the pod, these plants surprise me perennially. They are late starters in spring and late bloomers in summer, so sometimes I just lose track of them! They make a great second act after your Lobelia syphilitica has petered out, taking up a similar space in similar conditions.

Good companion plants are Chelone, or turtlehead, Begonia grandis, and Eurybia divaricata, or the white wood aster.

Right now I grow my mistflower in dry beds, but I am going to give it a try in my bog next season. What that area lacks in sun it makes up for in moisture, so it’s worth seeing how it does.

This is a native, deer resistant pollinator— if you don’t grow it and you don’t have a lot of action in your fall garden you should give it a grow.

Painting and Plant Pairing

from

Karen Blair

You heard me mention my friend Karen Blair on the pod this week. Karen is a Charlottesville based painter whose work I know you would love. She is known for her joyous use of color and for exuberant mark-making. Her own garden and those of friends inspire the flowers and trees that are prevalent in her paintings.

I am so excited to start this partnership with Karen, and each week I will feature here one of her paintings with a corresponding garden photo! Follow this link to see more of her paintings.

I had some zinnias, but didn’t put any in— had fun trying other things to match Karen’s palette. I think the underside of the Begonia grandis worked well!

And follow her on Instagram here.

Marian Boswall

As a horticulturist and landscape architect, Marian Boswall considers sustainability to be intrinsic to her designs and indeed to her way of life.

In her book Sustainable Garden, Marian delivers ideas that would help us all to enhance the enjoyment of our gardens by getting us to give back to nature.

Projects on creating spaces and objects, entertaining, personal use of the garden, and cultivation are provided both in the form of do-able activities and more general recommendations on the way we can think about our gardens.