I cut an advertisement out of a magazine for Burpee’s Southern Charm Verbascum in 1995. It has been in my files since then. I finally found one in 2020. This Flower plays the long game.
This Verbascum/Mullein has not been happy here. I have moved it… I thought. Now a struggling plant is in the old spot and another in the new location. I will keep moving it until it is happy.
In the mean time, I will enjoy its scraggly spikes with the color combo that I love and the tiny bees that fascinate me.
The anatomy of this bloom is not the usual centered symmetry of stamen and pistil. The stamen look like purple pipe cleaners.
It struggles along but survives. I know how it feels.
Grow(and bloom)where you are planted.
FLOW
floweralley 
I’m glad you finally got one and hope it does well. It’s a lovely colour combination. You’ve reminded me of how hard you had to search for certain LPs when I was younger. Now you can just go online and download everything.
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Ah, mulleins! I have some really big solid yellow ones (V. olympicum) that pop up here and there. I don’t let them go hog-wild self-seeding, but it’s nice to have a few. I also have some smaller yellow ones that have purple middles. Finally, there are 3 or 4 small white ones with purple centres, that look a lot like the one in your photos. A long time ago I bought a pink variety, but it perished in short order.
That picture from the seed catalogue looks gorgeous! No wonder you saved it.
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Yes, Audrey. That photo is the flower of dreams. Mine looks puny. Maybe one more move…
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