What's in a Name?

Feature Flower of the Week: Ageratum

You may remember seeing ageratum bordering your grandmother’s garden, or perhaps your mother planted it in her flower beds.

My own mother loved it. I remember her planting that low growing annual, with its sweet little purple, round, cluster flowers that look like they are frayed around the edge  Although it grew easily and made a nice show all summer long, I wasn’t overly fond of it.  Still, I did plant some every year in my own garden because it reminded me of how much she loved it. 

However, while leafing quickly through the pages of a garden magazine a few years ago, I stopped, turning the page back to look more closely at a flower that looked so familiar. The flower on the page had to be ageratum! Only this wasn’t short like the ageratum I knew as a child.  It was tall, with beautiful rounded leaves, branching and airy, creating a wide spread across. topped with cluster after cluster of those delightful purple frayed-edge button flowers. There was no mention of it in the article but I researched endless seed companies until I found what I hoped was it.  

We like to see how a plant behaves in our gardens before we grow it to sell to customers. I planted the seeds with promising anticipation. 

After transplanting the seedlings to the garden, the season started and I had little time to think about the “Tall Blue Planet Ageratum,” not alone check on its growth and habits. 

Until... Early one morning while picking flowers and fillers for market bouquets, there it was: blooming, standing tall and wide, looking bold yet feminine, with purple blue flower heads on every branching stalk. I cut a few pieces to grace a bouquet, loving the look. 

We have been growing it at Grace and Gratitude ever since. 

I recently read that ageratum is nicknamed, “Floss” flower which made me smile, look up and say, “I love you Mom.” Flossy was my mother’s nickname! Could this be why she loved growing ageratum in her garden? 

2 comments

  • I’m so happy to have found you! And…my mom loved ageratum too! She was in a garden club and always talking about it when I was little. ❤️

    Alexandria
  • What a wonderful color those blossoms are.

    D.j.Martin

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