The letter is D, the flower is Delphinium
One of my favourite flowers. I have grown them in every garden I have ever had.
Delphiniums are an alkaline loving perennial,
popular in cottage type gardens where their beautiful showy spikes tower in gorgeous shades of blue, pink, white and purple.
They are fond of moist cool summers and definitely need to be staked early in the season if they are going to be exposed to sudden wind or rain.
Difficult to grow from seed, they should be purchased in a pot, unless, of course, you have a friendly neighbour who is willing to part with a crown. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the plant’s container, and be sure that the top of the root ball is level with the soil.
After the first blooming in June cut the flower stalks to the ground and new flower stalks will develop so that you can enjoy Delphinium in October, although they won't be as spectacular as the June flowers – but just as precious as you go into winter.
Very young delphinium plants and delphinium seeds are poisonous, and can cause nausea, twitching muscles, paralysis and even death, so please don’t consider them a delicacy.
For more interesting Ds please click here and visit ABC Wednesday.
15 comments:
What a genius idea to use the alphabet to display such lovely things as flowers. My delphiniums come from chromes from my great great grandmother. I have had them for nearly 40 yrs. and am most proud of them. How often if at all, do you divide them? Yours are lovely as well. Looking foreward to 'E.'
Blessings
Love these, so pretty
Don't know this flower, but it is lovely.
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
I learn something new every week while visiting you
, thank you for showing these beautiful flowers!
Wil, ABCW Team.
Good one for 'D'. These are pretty flowers. I never knew what they were called.
I love delphiniums too.
Visiting from ABC Wednesday, where I sharing Dianthus for D at craftygardener.ca
I love their clear blue colours Hildred. I love their distant cousins, Larkspur, too. My sister had larkspur in her wedding bouquet many years ago and they always remind me of her.
What pretty flowers! Love the pastel colors.
I am DEFENDING my town over at The 3R Ranch.
I've got a bunch of these in one of my gardens, they are lovely.
Ann
I love deliphiniums. I started some from seeds and they came by every year for about five years. I let them go to seed and had good luck with them coming back until I spent less time weeding and ended up with a wild garden. They couldn't compete with other self seeders and at this point the area where I had delphiniums is overrun with honeysuckle. Your shot reminded me of how much I miss them. Carver, ABC Wed. Team
Yes, this is a very beautiful flower! Wish it could grow up here soon:-) We have to much winter right now
Ah! One of my favourite flowers!
Leslie
abcw team
A truly lovely flower! I've tried growing them but they don't seem to come back after the first year.
I remember seeing delphiniums in England, but I remember them best from a Christopher Robin book "When We were very Young". There was a poem in that book that began: "Delphiniums red; delphiniums blue..." but sadly I don't remember any more of it.
I thought at once of the AA Milne poem too, as did your commenter above. Sadly too much of my brain is still filled with Christopher Robin poems. This one is called 'the dormouse and the doctor' and this is the first verse:
There once was a Dormouse who lived in a bed
Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red),
And all the day long he’d a wonderful view
Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue).
Post a Comment