I discovered the plant above at my local nursery (Strange’s, for anyone reading this who lives in Richmond).  The intense blue color just stunned me.  This particular hybrid gets rather large -- 2 to 3 feet, according to the card that came with it -- and I simply had to have two of them, even though I wasn’t sure where I’d put them.  I had designs on planting them in the ground around my deck until I remembered that we’ve got electrical and telephone wires going through that area, and as I have no real desire to electrocute myself, I decided instead to put them in very large pots and try to control growth via prudent pruning. 

    I am told that hummingbirds like the flowers very much, so that’s a bonus.

© K. Wills Sterling, 2009