It will likely not come as a shock to any of you that I love
blue. I hate neutral colors like taupe,
oatmeal, linen, beige, greige (Satan incolornate), and wheat. My neutrals are blue, green, and white. Real white.
I love off-whites, but life is easier when you go with white. Many people have needed to be hospitalized
following an off-white induced mental breakdown. Also any off-white that goes dingy is
repulsive to me. This serves as evidence
to my theory that people surround themselves with the colors that make them
look most attractive.
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| She wears neutrals well |
Do you remember Color Me Beautiful? You're
a Spring, You're an Autumn, having your "colors read"? If you don't recall, here is a gem of a
YouTube video pulled from the archives of bad taste. My mom was--or still is, I suppose, I doubt
that "certification" expires--an expert on the subject. So I always grew up knowing I was a Winter,
having a firm grasp on what colors worked best for me. In family photos, my siblings wore navy and I
wore red, white, vivid green, or pink.
My sister sometimes wondered why I got to wear pink and she didn't. I think my mom's friends all thought she put
me in pink because I was gay. So anyway,
it's not that I think neutrals are bad.
They're just not for me and therefore I hate them. I've always wished I were blond and had milky
blue eyes and looked good in camel coats and Ralph Lauren buttery yellow. So maybe my aversion to neutrals is actually
just jealousy. Whatever it is, they have
no place with me.
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| Source |
So given that my go to neutral is blue, I gravitate towards
it in most areas. Obviously I love blue
and white porcelain and dinnerware.
Everything else I buy for tabletop has to pass one test: does it look good with blue and white?
Luckily, the answer is always yes. With
the exception of some shades of purple. Because
more likely than not, there will be some blue and white floating around.
While blue and white does work with almost everything, I
have my favorite combinations. Probably
my favorite favorite is blue and white with sunflower gold. Followed closely by blue and white with cranberry. I love the combination with sunflower because
it is so fleeting and perfect in September.
September is my favorite month.
To me, the color story that narrates September is polished blue and white with wild, tired, and
glowing sunflower gold. It's spectacular
when the world switches from invasive summer light to the long, golden rays of
September. The mornings are cool like an
October day and the days are warm like an August morning. You can go summery or autumnal and you're
right either way. For me, that means
buying pumpkins and mums in white shorts.
A day when I can buy pumpkins, peaches, Goldenrod honey, and tomatoes is
a very good day indeed. Only in
September.
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| Those cheap Libbey glasses have proven to be an excellent purchase! |
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| I absolutely love goldenrod. I hope there's a pornstar out there who has used that as a name. Thomas Edison experimented with making rubber tires from goldenrod, hybridizing a variety that contained about 12% rubber. |
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| Key Lime Pie for my best friend's birthday |
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| A melon, corn, and tomato salad with grapefruit and feta |
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| I don't have blue ice cream bowls! So I used these Bavarian teacups and saucers. I bought these for $50 when I was 20. I've actually not seen this pattern elsewhere since. |
Now you have some insight why I am so excited about one blue plant in particular. I am going to declare it the perfect blue-blooming plant for central
Annual planting here does not begin until after May 15. Or it shouldn't. There are always those people who go buy
everything on the first warm day in April, but we almost always have a killing
frost on May 14 or 15. With often
vacationing around Memorial Day, I wait until the first week of June to plant
my annuals. Surprise, surprise, I don't
trust anyone to water them the right way while I'm gone. The upside to this delayed planting is that
everything is on sale. The downside is
that the inventory can be somewhat limited.
That actually ends up being kind of fun because it forces me to try new
plants. I used to stick to a palette of
fuchsia, lavender, dark purple, and lime green with all my annual containers.
Over the last few years, I've decided I prefer riotous color. So I buy geraniums in coral, fuchsia, pale
pink, and red--petunias in lavender, pink, and deep violet--verbena in red,
blue, and pink--pentas in red and pink--lantana in yellow and orange--and this
year, salvia. I have grown Victoria Blue
salvia before and thought it was fine, but it wasn't a prolific bloomer for
me. I had it in the ground and maybe it
got too wet. So since it was like 150
degrees in the greenhouse, I didn't
think about it all that long and got the last ten Salvia 'Black and Blue' they
had. As you know, I'm not a I'll just buy one kind of guy.
I loved their intense blue blooms and figured they were worth a
try.
I loved the immediate height they gave my containers. In the following weeks, I was highly
skeptical. The blooms faded and it
appeared no new blooms were forming. The
plants were bulking considerably, but only in leaves. I am an aggressive fertilizer with annuals,
so I knew they had plenty of calcium (I use a fish and seaweed emulsion
and add a few tablespoons of whole milk).
I decided to give them one more week after the 4th of July before I
pulled them. They were growing so much
that they were blocking the geraniums from getting light. Apparently salvias
respond to threats. Within that week,
they went insane with countless spires of bloom unfurling toward the sun. They went from scraggly bunches of green to
shrub-like masses of blue. I love them
because they are so saturated at every turn.
The leaves are deep and healthy emerald, the blooms are clear and vivid
cobalt, and the calyx is strikingly black.
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| The best photo I could get. I asked my brother to take over hummingbird photography for me. I lured him over with a six-pack of his favorite beer (it's disgusting) |
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| I asked him to get one with the bird, the salvia, and the lantana. He asked okay, where is the Atlanta? |
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| Are they not just the most adorable little things? |
Their beauty is not even the best part. The hummingbirds! The hummingbirds go
absolutely insane for them. I've never
had a hummingbird feeder because I don't want to mess with making syrup for
them all the time, and of course a bird feeder is a sizable commitment. With
the cleaning and restocking and guarding from squirrels. While I've always admired hummingbirds, I've
never really interacted with them. I was
absolutely delighted when I looked from the sink one day and saw a hummingbird
darting between blooms. I went over to
the window to examine and saw another. Starting in early July and not ending
until September 21, from sunrise to sunset, there have been at least three
hummingbirds at my salvia. Even in the
rain. At first, they were very skeptical
of me and Barbie and would flee when they heard the door open. As weeks passed, they became comfortable and
almost social. I kind of felt like a fat
and tan Snow White with birds swirling around me at every turn. Did you see this bird migration map from
Cornell? It is indeed mesmerizing. There is also this one that has each bird
numbered. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are
81. Of course, anything good for
hummingbirds is inviting to butterflies.
I've also tremendously enjoyed the rush of butterflies.
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| I think this is a Cloudless Sulphur. Not a Gypsy Moth as it kind of appears to be |
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| Barbie and a Black Swallowtail last summer |
All information on salvia suggests that they like very dry
soil. I have mine in small containers
that bake in the sun all day, so that is likely why mine seem to benefit from a
deep and thorough watering every day.
Also it could be because I am a habitual over-waterer and feeder. God forbid anything under my care not be
stuffed to the gills with a drink in hand.
Whatever the case, mine are very happy.
Although the hummingbirds abruptly left, I am going to leave the salvia
for as long as I can. I think the
stunning blue will be an excellent foil to the rust, gold, and burgundy of mums. Assuming it ever cools down enough to plant
them.
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| July 30 |
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| September 21. I did stake them. Once in June and once in late July That's only two plants! |
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| Yessssss. Sorry, but I don't give a fuck about Halloween. I've dated too many Scorpios |
Did you discover a new favorite plant this year?
