Clary Sage, Dondo Blue, and Bachelor Buttons

I haven’t written in a while because the weather has been chilly and we had Santa Ana winds which made my whole backyard looked pretty messy. I also had Thanksgiving shopping to do so that kept me indoors quite a bit. I thought about doing a video to show my yard so perhaps that will happen during the Christmas holiday. For now, I wanted to share some of the plants that are still flowering in my garden, most notably clary sage, dondo blue, and bachelor buttons. I always get their names mixed up but by writing this post I will clear up any doubts about what these are.

Clary sage is an herb. The leaves and flowers are used for teas and aromatherapy applications. I have not tried using them for that yet but sounds very interesting. This plant likes full sun but grows well in part shade too. It needs moist well-drained soil. Leave it too dry and it will look like my plant below!

Dondo blue is a great easy care plant. It likes full sun but will grow in part shade as well. It likes moist soil. What I love about these is that they bloom from late spring until now. These would make great “fillers” in containers, the leaves are fuzzy and nicely shaped. The blue color is the prettiest, the pictures here do not do them justice.

Bachelor buttons or cornflower is a tall and bountiful plant. They are a bright vibrant blue as captured in the picture below. One plant can have stalks that shoots out as many as 40-50 flowers. They are about 24-28 inches tall and spreads as wide, if not a little more. They were so beautiful when they bloomed for the first time in the spring. They last a few days in the vase so you can take some for your office desk!

These guys like full sun but I have a few bushes in part shade as well and they bloomed the best. They like moist, well-draining soil. Bees love these too.

Below is one of my flower arrangement early this spring. They seem to do best in the spring but continues to flower when the weather is semi cooler in the fall /winter. One plant in the picture is the yellow and white STATICE which I will mention later in a subsequent post. All these flowers lasts more than a week in the vase, so I would say they are excellent cut flowers for your home.