Yippee...I did it!

Yippee, I finally did it! I grew my first delphinium. Now, some of you out there are probably saying, big deal, so she grew her first delphinium. But, for me, it is a really big deal. You see, my sister has grown prize delphiniums for years. You could say that she has the delphinium green thumb. Her delphiniums are down right gorgeous. She can manage to keep them blooming right through our first frost and into November.

I don't have a particular fascination with delphiniums. I think delphiniums are a beautiful flowering plant, but I am not the type of gardener that wants to spend time protecting, nurturing and fussing over a single plant. I have far too many plants to care for. On the other hand, I have tried growing delphiniums from time to time, only to have them succumb. I finally came to the realization that delphiniums were not to be a staple in my garden, so I put the thoughts of growing them to rest,....until last year. Yes I did it again. I got sucked into buying three plants. They sat on my deck most of last summer. I guess I had some deep seated vision of their immediate death upon planting them. In the meantime, one of them did pass on to delphinium heaven. Ah, proof that the curse was still there. But as summer started to fade, two plants had managed to hang on in their original pots. Feeling bad that they survived the entire summer and guilty for not planting them, I marched off to my trellis garden and found two well protected spots. I watered and watched these two scrawny plants make it through the fall. I even put markers in to show where they were placed just to prove that they would not be there come spring.

Spring arrived and I walked around inspecting my beds to see what had and had not survived the winter. To my surprise, there appeared to be the two surviving delphiniums. But still, I did not get my hopes up. After all, I have been here before. But, this has been a great spring for plants. And the plants have been flourishing.

Last week I went away for the weekend and noted that one of the plants had a nice form of buds. But again, I still did not set myself up for disappointment because it had not yet opened. As I took my evening walk through my gardens last night to look for problems or see what was in bloom, there shining brightly was a beautiful pale blue delphinium. It even looked like it was well placed and belonged there. As I looked at that plant, I had to confess, it was a special moment for me to see something that had evaded me for so long, finally come into fruition. I was no longer a delphinium failure.

So why my fixation on delphiniums? I am sure every gardener has a story of some plant they really liked but for some reason, they had little or no success at growing it while a friend, relative or neighbor had it in fruitful abundance. So for me, you could say it was a case of plant envy. The more I saw my sister's delphiniums, the more I wanted to have one for myself. Well now, that I no longer feel like I am a delphinium failure, will I ever grow another delphinium? Who knows? For now, I am over my delphinium envy. At this point, I will just enjoy the victory and email these pictures to my sister.