Just for a change...

No but it's very pretty!

LOL. Nobody's screens seem to show the real colour of my set of pink pansies, Bell. This does look the same as it is in its pot, though! :-)))

Agree its very pretty.....

:-))))))

lovely colour

A very nice one !

Yes, I liked it, too. I bought a pack of 24 'Purple Shades' from B&Q, quite cheaply, and this is one of them.

Really lovely.....

:-))))

Lovely purple Pansy! :-))

Thanks. Isn't it difficult to choose from all the beautiful colours there are around! :-))

It certainly is difficult! Pansies have evolved colours that years ago just did not exist! When I returned to the UK 9 years ago after living 19 years in Spain I was very surprised by the winter flowering Pansies. The gorgeous colours available to us nowadays are really magnificent! We never used to have those colours 25 years ago! They were introduced while I lived in Spain & Pansies don't take very kindly to the hot, dry summers. I did grow some though but not nearly as many as here.

That was a nice surprise, then. I suppose Pelargoniums were all around, were they? Not too much choice of colours there, I'm afraid. :-(

Regal & Zonal Pelargoniums did very well on my balconies in Spain. Apart from yellow & blue, which don't exist in this genus, you could get any combination of colours, forms. Except, till a couple of years before we returned to the UK, you couldn't find the Stellar geraniums. I was the only person to have this geranium.

They were introduced by Thompson & Morgan in the spring of 1982 & as I liked them so much, & had never seen anything like them before, I bought a packet of seeds, can't remember how much I paid for them, only that they were the most expensive seeds I'd ever bought in my life!

The plants grew very well & were flowering nicely when we decided to go back to Spain. The plants were too big to take with me so I took a few cutting from each plant, put them in a plastic bag with a damp piece of tissue paper & put them in a suitcase. They stayed in the suitcase for about 5 days! When I finally got them out they had all produced roots!!! They went on to live for many years, not the same plants but cuttings I took from them every year. I even saved seed & got lots from seed!

Sounds good to me! I used to collect Regals many moons ago, and propagated them as well. I loved them....much more so than Zonals!

In catalogues I've noticed a 'yellow' one appearing - it isn't a bright colour, though. I'd like to see the real thing, rather than a picture, which of course can be 'enhanced'!!!

Probably like the "Blue" roses when they first started! I still pass one quite frequently, I think it may be "Blue Moon", though I don't know. Being as there is no gene in roses for blue we will never get a true blue.

Having said that I remember reading about a true blue rose bred in Japan. They extracted the blue gene from another plant, can't remember which, & inserted it into the rose genome. It is very much in demand in Japan!

Roses are red, and now come in blue:

http://www.growquest.com/rose%20section/best_blue_roses.htm

It seems the blue pigment was extracted from Pansies. It was also included in Carnations it seems!

How interesting! I actually have 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'Blue for You'. I rather surprised myself, as I really don't like 'Blue Moon', but I saw 'R in B' at Wisley and liked it, so when I revamped the front bed, it seemed the right colour - and it looks great there. The other one is pretty similar, but they're both more mauve then blue, I think. :-)

Can you upload a picture of it? It would be nice to see it.

I did - I'll look through my photos and tell you where to look.

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/169487-rosa-blue-to-you/member/spritzhenry

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/166041-rosa-rhapsody-in-blue/member/spritzhenry

There you are! I'd like to know what you think about them.

Thanks, Spritz. :-)) I looked at your pics & found them very unusual for roses!

Yes, they are...I wasn't sure about them until they went in the bed amongst other plants, then I loved the combination. :-)