Delphinium Glory

The Pacific Giant series Delphiniums are in glorious bloom. They are definitely a show-stopper, the most striking blooms since the tulips in springtime. Mine were grown from seed and these plants are 2 to 3 years old. The key to placement of delphiniums is to ensure the bottom two feet of the plants are shielded from view. They have unsightly bottoms and need some shorter perennials at their feet.

The light blue blooms are called "Summer Skies". Clearly so! These flowers look especially good for weathering a hail storm last weekend.

This is "Blue Bird". I bought these seeds from Swallowtail Garden seeds, who has a nice selection of delphiniums.

Papaver somniferum pink and mauve blooms. So pretty! I just love these poppies.

A lovely trio of white Campanula persicifolia, pink Papaver somniferum, and pacific giant delphiniums.

Digitalis x mertonensis, the Strawberry foxglove, grows among other perennials in the raised bed. I understand that D. mertonensis is actually a hybrid of D. purpurea and D. grandiflora, both of which I also grow. D. purpurea is a biennial, producing foliage in the first year and flowers in the second. D. grandiflora, on the other hand, produces yellow flowers and is perennial, producing flowers reliably every year.

I have noticed that D. mertonensis has unique foliage with large dark green leaves with toothed edges. I wasn't sure which digitalis was which until I noticed that they can be distinguished from their leaves. Now I'm interested to see how long D. x mertonensis lives.