The song “Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Blues” entered my consciousness (my guess) in the late 1970s. The number of artists who recorded this song surprised me. I listened to several versions, sometimes being a country music fan, maybe Alan Jackson’s version is playing in my mind. Nope..then I listened to Eddie Cochran.The song’s author and realized his original version is the one that sticks in my mind. Sadly, I find Eddie Cochran was killed in a taxicab accident at the age of 21.
Oh, back to gardening and my vase. This vase is composed of blues and cured me, for a short period of time, of the Summertime Blues. In South Florida, Summertime Gardening Blues can include heat, humidity, bugs, fungus, being horribly sweaty and having hot flashes in the garden, running out of cold water and or, Gatorade, Oh, I forgot weeds! ACK. The vase must be blue and lovely. Here it is.
My cure for the Summertime Blues. First, an antique Blue Willow teapot from the UK as a vase. The blue flowers are; in powder blue (what is that powder, anyway?) Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) a stalwart shrub in my garden. In deeper blue on the left side, Mystic Blue Salvia, wrenched back from near death by my (shocking) overwatering. The purple flowers on the right are my new summer favorite, Mona Lavendar Plectranthus. White flowers are Miss Alice Bougainvillea and the yellow flowers are from Galphinia glauca, Thyrallis. There is a bit of chartreuse Coleus foliage behind the blue salvia and some varigated Bromeliad foliage in the back of the teapot.
A closer view:
Ah, relief from the Summertime Blues.
As always, thank you to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting and Happy Gardening!
The Shrub Queen 
What a sweet arrangement in a little teapot – lovely
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Thank you.
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Lovely arrangement. Love the combination of colors and textures. And they look wonderful in this lovely pot.
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Thank you, Angie.
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The Blue Willow and your cooling, calm palette do Summertime just right. I love Blue Plumbago but haven’t figured out the trick to growing it here. Lovely arrangement.
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Thanks, Susie. I think the trick with Plumbago there is to use it in summer containers. I had big yellow, blue, white orange flowers in containers in Atlanta.
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Bet that was beautiful! Thanks!
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The swallowtails on my parsley just hatched out..
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Oh that’s so exciting! Yay!
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The teapot makes a striking impact with your other blues and the contrasting yellows and greens, and will, surely lift your spirits. Let’s hope you don’t suffer with too many of the things on that list this summer!!
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Thank you, blues are favorites
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This is so pretty, and I love that teapot!
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Thanks Eliza
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Blue flowers are a great antidote for the summertime blues! We avoided the worst of last week’s heatwave but summer is here and I’m not at all happy about it, especially given how dry we are. Here, one source of the summertime blues are the constant nightly fireworks that begin in early June and continue well into August despite the fact that personal fireworks are illegal in our tinder-dry area. I love the blues of both your the vase and the selected flowers. I can only wish ‘Mona Lavender’ was as happy in my garden as it obviously is in yours.
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I think we got all the rain! I am over fireworks in general.
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Nice cool blue. It is very weird, for a northerner, not to have cold or even cool water from the faucet. Water can also get very hot in the garden hose.
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Yes, cool water surprises me on the rare occassion it comes out of the faucet.
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I remember a salvia like that, which we grew as a minor cut flower crop. It seemed like an odd crop to me, since it resembled mealycup sage, which is a bedding plant that I did not think worked well as cut flower.
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Truthfully, it doesn’t work well as a cut flower, the stems are too short. Found more seeds on the Tecoma today..the hairs are standing up, think that is a clue?
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They are hairy?! I do not know, but it might indicate that they are hydrating prior to germinating.
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Hmm, they are known to reseed here. As soon and the rain and humidity kicked in the plant started putting out a lot of leaves and some of the dried seed pods are still hanging on. Maybe the hairs help them fly away.
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Or cling to animals.
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That is so pretty. The blues all look lovely in the blue teapot. I have admired the plectranthus before, but the powder blue Plumbago is really gorgeous too. 😉 Hope the summertime blues stay away.
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Thank you. I was out for a couple of hours this morning and feel parboiled.
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