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Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

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Pretty in purple [but still an impulse buy]

Posted Oct 16, 2009 by Kim Franke-Folstad

Updated Oct 16, 2009 at 04:10 PM

You know how the same plant will catch your eye at the nursery time after time, but for some reason you never buy it?
It’s just not in the plan for that day’s shopping, or the season isn’t right, or you love it but you don’t have anywhere to put it.

For me, that plant is Scaevola aemula, also known as Purple Fan or Fairy Fanflower.

I should say it was that plant, because I finally picked up three at Lowe’s the other day and brought them home. And I can’t wait to see how they do on my deck.

Scaevola aemula is a pretty little trailing annual (although I think it might work as a perennial here), with lavender flowers. The center of the flower is yellow, so I put it in terracotta pots with Turnera ulmifolia, yellow Buttercup.

I’ve had a lot of luck with Buttercup in a pot, but I’m nervous about this new, untried plant. I got burned by another recent impulse purchase, a plant called Scutellaria blue sea, or Blue Sea Skull Cap. They had gorgeous purple blooms when I got them at Lowe’s, but they petered out within days and never bloomed again. They also got a bit sparse in spots.

This is what they should look like:

This is what they look like:

Told ya. Not pretty. So I plucked the Scutellaria from the high-profile pots on my desk and replaced them with these new ones.

In an unusual move, I put the three pathetic Scutellaria plants in the ground near the pergola, and I’m going to give them a shot there. Usually, I move plants that aren’t thriving in the ground to pots, so I can control the soil and moisture a bit better. If I move a plant from pot to ground, it’s because it outgrew the pot.

If the three plants don’t make it where they are now, they’re out. Meanwhile, I’m happy with the new combo. If anybody has information about caring for Scaevola aemula, let me know!