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Top: ‘Picotee Blue’ morning glory. Above: Blue pansies.


Above: hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’.


its dangerous properties. In Roman times it was used to eliminate prison- ers and criminals and was so associated with death that it was banned. Anyone caught growing it


could be put to


death themselves. The toxic substance, aconite, has also been used for good, and minute quantities were used to slow down the heart, reduce fevers and treat pneumonia. Externally, an ointment of aconite soothed the pain of rheuma- tism, lumbago and neuralgia.


Bachelor buttons Blue, as we have noted, is not totally


restricted to shade. Bachelor buttons love to grow in sunny places and are quite good at regenerating themselves under the right conditions. Bachelor button, Centaurea cyanus,


also called cornflower (so called because it was considered a weed growing among fields of grain, when all grains were called “corn” in the UK), origi- nally came in blue as testified to by its specific epithet of ‘cyanus’, from the Greek ‘Kyanus’, meaning dark blue. Another of its common names is blue- bottle. Bachelor button was used as an eye wash to cool tired eyes, and its rapid fading was a symbol of a man’s dying love. It was the favourite flower of John F. Kennedy and was worn at his wedding in his


father’s honour, by John F.


Kennedy Jr. There is also a perennial variety,


Centaurea montana, that is not as showy but which is very photogenic.


18 WINTER 2013 www.localgardener.net Borage.


Left: Aconitum or monkshood. Below: true geranium, also know as ‘cranesbill’.


Left: Veronica (Speedwell). Below: Echinops.


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