The joy of delphiniums

John took this photo of my friend Linda and me in the delphinium patch of my Dunbar garden on Sunday. I have always loved these flowers for their height and colour; recently I discovered that somebody at VanDusen Garden must feel the same way....

. . .Because there, what a show! A gigantic delphinium patch at VanDusen is even more brilliant because of the golden-leaved trees behind it.

I have a thing for giant flowers – those Jack and the Beanstalk wonders that stretch and tower, preferably above my head. No wonder I lit on delphiniums early in my gardening career, and count them as a yearly treasure. Every spring, it’s a miracle when their green shoots start poking out of a dead-looking garden bed, and if they survive the feasting slugs, transform themselves into a forest of blue, white and purple spikes.

If I’m enchanted by my little back-yard puddle of delphiniums, you can imagine how exciting it was to find a whole sea of them. Way at the back of VanDusen Garden, after the waterfall, the maze, the vegetable garden, the giant-sized red Adirondack chair, I was surprised this week to find a gigantic swirl of delphiniums, a glowing mass of  blues, purples, whites and pinks.

They soar and wobble, topple and tumble on both sides of a curved garden path, a luscious backdrop of colour for preening selfies, besotted couples and parents preserving memories of their toddlers among the flowers. While I was there on Sunday, two young men in business clothes posed gravely for each other at exactly the right spot along the path to ensure they were engulfed in blossoms.

 Delphiniums are a pain to take care of; wind and rain are their enemies, and they need constant staking. But somebody at VanDusen obviously thinks, like I do, that they're worth the trouble. Sometimes people need a forest of flowers that they can imagine climbing to reach the sky.

VanDusen's curved pathway, delphiniums to right and left.

These flowers like to droop; the white ones particularly have been bent by wind, rain or lack of staking.

Instead of staking each flower individually, VanDusen grows its delphiniums in a grid, which peeks out a little in this photo. If it's not enough to hold them up, they just have to flop.

An early look at my delphinium patch; you can see the stakes I have started putting in. In the background are roses and a few peony blossoms. 

My delphiniums, with stakes. They're not nearly as thickly planted as those at VanDusen.

These are foxgloves, which grow almost as a weed in my garden. They're another of those tall flowers I favour, even though they, too, like to flop. 

These are hollyhocks, another "Jack and the  Beanstalk" flower I love. I took this photo on a walk a couple of summers ago; most hollyhocks are just getting started blooming now.

And another hollyhock photo from an earlier year. Unruly, tall and flopping over -- my favourite kind of flower.