Blooming Purple
One of my favorite colors, especially these days, is purple. I've notice that both blue and purple tend to be elusive colors in nature, at least in New York City area. With certain flowers, it's difficult to distinguish between whether or not the color is actually purple or blue. Here in NY, we don't have lush and fragrant lavender fields and rare is it to see draping wisteria. So when early spring comes and purple appears in my garden and around town, I take great delight in taking in their beauty.
When you enter the gate to my home, to the right is a tiny plot of land measuring approximately 6x9 feet. In this small, sacred space I have two purple perennials that are now blooming. One is a ground cover called vinca, which produces tiny, lavender/ purple colored flowers. I painstakingly planted the vinca because I grew weary of trying to have grass; and this ground cover stays green throughout all the seasons. Vinca, also known as periwinkle is used for certain types of cancers like leukemia. Vinca also has anti-microbial and anti-diabetic properties. So every spring, the deep green leaves of the vinca plant that covers the ground, sprouts small lavender vinca flowers, that are not only beautiful but have healing properties.
In this little garden mixed in with the vinca, are grape hyacinths that pop up. They are so adorable, but do not have the luscious smell of the full size hyacinths, whose fragrance is quite pervasive and intoxicating. I enjoy placing hyacinths on my ancestor shrine because the fragrance is so strong, I'm sure the ancestors are delighted by the aroma.
While I’m too lazy to deal with planting pansies for early spring, I love seeing their smiling faces. Crocus is another of the early spring, purple beauties that nature offers in this region of the country.
And then there are the Blue Bells... At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden there is a field of blue bells around this time of year that is just amazing to see. There are thousands of them, like a sea of blue, or is it purple?
And then in my neighbors garden are some purple bearded irises. Swoon! If you love purple like I do, take it all in because these purple beauties won't be around for much longer.