June 22
Smooth Phlox (Phlox
glaberrima)
Ruellia (Ruellia
ceroliniensis)
Summer
Bluets (Houstonia
purpurea)
All three of
these plants have bluish shades of color and get along
quite well together where I find them in my woodland
border. An orange or red flower just wouldn’t have much in
common with this group. Mother Nature does a great job of
landscape design.
These plants are like treasured friends of mine. They don’t
ask much of me and I can always count on them being there.
Some are quiet and subtle, some are strong and dependable,
and some, like the Smooth Phlox, always seem to attract
attention. Individual pink flowers of Smooth Phlox come and
go but there is a long duration of colorful blooms. Bloom
time can be extended further by removing faded flowers. Or,
just leave them alone so they can reseed. It’ll be fine. At
any rate, Smooth Phlox is a perennial and will come back
each year. They don’t seem to ever have pests or diseases.
Native plant people are lucky to be alive. We drive with
one eye on the road and one eye on the side
of
the road—to see what’s blooming. That is how I first saw
Ruellia. I made a note to go back and collect seed later in
the year. But right away I was happy see her show up in my
garden. Now, like a loyal friend, she is there when I need
her each year. The blue violet flowers don’t last long but
the plant keeps offering new ones while the faded blooms
quietly slip away. Even after blooming, this perennial
contributes to the garden with her lovely green foliage.
I’ve learned to recognize the tufted appearance of the
leaves, spaced at tiers up and down the stem, so I can
protect her.
Sweet little Summer Bluets don’t get much taller than ten
inches in my garden. They quietly fill in where needed
around the stems of taller plants, the way we use baby’s
breath in a bouquet. Several stems rise from a root crown.
Its little cousin, Houstonia
caerulea, which we
simply call Bluets, blooms much earlier and is seen in one
of my other paintings (March 26, Trout-lily).
Remember, these are native plants that were growing in this
spot before our house was even built. I didn’t plant them.
More importantly, I didn’t dig them up, “amend” the soil
and plant some foreign species in their place. Nothing
could be prettier.
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