Okay....I ordered seeds for Cerinthe Major and had no luck with them and then I ordered a plant from annie's Annuals...It arrived looking wonderful and I have been waiting for it to bloom and now the blooms are not opening completely and drying up on the ends! I saw this plant in The english Garden magazine last winter and fell in love with it. It is getting afternoon sun .......... What is wrong?????????????????????
I didn't know there was a blue Shrimp Plant. And I am no help, because I have no idea. Maybe too much sun?
I don't have full sun anywhere..this is supposed to like full sun. Oh well..now they seem a little better but still doesn't look like the picture in The English Garden!
Some years ago I was reading a garden publication about the time this plant was either discovered or rediscovered. According to the article, it was a wildflower in Italy that had been growing wild around Roman ruins for many centuries (pictured in full, blazing, arid sun in a stony landscape). If my memory is behaving right now, it might have been a Thompson & Morgan seed catalog "reintroducing" this plant into horticulture (or was it Horticulture - both?)
Levilyla, one thing you and I have in common in the Baltimore area right now is one humongous case of the Humidities. The Roman gods have been so busy in our area throwing lightning and thunderbolts at our gardens, I think it's a miracle you and I are growing anything but seaweed - lol.
I wouldn't give up on the Blue Shrimp Plant, though. Where we have stones holding up our hill, or bricks over gravel in pathways, woolly thyme and pinks and even French lavender are all thriving, in spite of a huge silver maple just on the other side of the property line that steals quite a bit of sun. Maybe fooling around with drainage would help?
Thanks...yes, I agree with our humidity and it is mostly the hot humid nights that keep us from having all the wonderful things that the British can have and the people in the Pacific North West. I think draniage is very important also but I also think that nothing replaces what the sun can do (especially morning sun). I seem to have all shade in the morning and then in a couple of places everything gets blasted with afternoon sun. The absolute worst conditions for anything but I can't do anything about it because we have HUGE Tulip Poplars and Beech so I just try and deal with what I have. BTW I love Ellicott City but have not been there for years.
