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Funky, Fun Garden Plants by: Valerie Garner I have a love for funky, fun and unique garden plants. Here's one to try. It's called Sea Holly, and it's actually in the thistle family. Sea Holly is a perennial garden plant, which means you plant it once and it comes up year after year, somewhat depending on your climate. This plant never did fail to bring attention and comments from people seeing my garden. It grows about 3-4 feet high, very branchy and the branches are a brilliant electric blue color. It's stunning! The only drawback to this lovely plant, in the fall you must cut it to the ground and burn or compost the plant. Do not let it go longer than that, casting it seeds or you'll soon discover it's family trait of being in the thistle family, if you know what I mean. The following spring, it'll come back again to it's beauty. It is an easy plant to grow and does best with full sun, or as much sun as is available to you. I live in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. so we get a lot of rain and fairly mild summers and yet it seems to be enough for this plant. You can search for Sea Holly seeds in seed catalogs or sometimes you can find it in some nurserys. An internet search would surely find you a source for this lovely plant. I thought I'd let you know about one of the coolest, funky plants for outdoors I've ever run across. It's called Evening Scented Stock, it is NOT the common stock, however. This is an annual plant, that needs to be sown early spring, directly into the soil where it is to bloom and grow. I recommend planting it nearby windows and doors, porches, etc. This plant really doesn't look like much in and of itself, it's not a pretty plant per se..but when about 5:00 PM rolls around watch it do its stuff! This plant has a VERY powerful fragrance similar to hyacynths or lilacs. At the gentlest breeze it sends a waft of fragrance to die for. This is why it's so excellent to plant near a window, door or pathway. When you open up your screen in the evening, this will scent your entire house. One place that I have found the seeds for this rare plant is at Fragrant Path, PO Box '328
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