My gardening inspiration Lee Bailey had an interesting tale of the two plants pictured here – a foxglove and a delphinium. He wrote that for years growing up in the south, all he wanted to grow were delphiniums, but they never made it through those hot summers. As soon as he moved to Bridgehampton, New York he immediately planted a few delphinium plants, which quickly cowered and faded before the seaside winds and rain. He tried again, to no avail.
Seeking a strong vertical accent, he turned to foxgloves, and though he initially considered them a mere substitute, he came to love them and their whimsically-unreliable biennial growing pattern. It was one of the best group of lessons I learned from him – to take a disappointment and turn it around, to try out something similar if what you originally wanted didn’t work out perfectly, and to compromise and be willing to bend when nature refused to go along with your well-laid-out plans. Such garden lessons were valuable for other aspects of life too.
When I was at the garden center looking for new inspiration, I came upon these two pink plants – one foxglove and one delphinium, and I was reminded of Mr. Bailey’s words of wisdom.
