Getting to Know Lisianthus Celeb - Metallic Blue - March 2026

Yesterday, I posted my Garden Club plug order and talked about how all six varieties are new (to me).  

Lisianthus Celeb 2 Metallic Blue is the first one up.  I bought eight plugs and this is my first Lisianthus.  If you follow any flower farmer on Instagram, you can't go a week without hearing about Lisianthus.  They're rose-like and from what I've come to understand have good 'vase life'. 

These "Celeb 2" Metallic blue are described by Garden Club as:

The 'Celeb' series features large to extremely large, fully double, fringed flowers. This series dominates the Japanese Lisianthus market, and many of the cut flowers we see imported from Japan are Celeb types.

Those Japanese gardeners.  They're so prolific. 

Anything BLUE is of immediate interest to me, so the name made these an easy-add.  The photos show a more purple color, but we'll see what happens when/if they bloom:

Source via Garden Club

Ball Seed says:

Huge blooms with strong, wavy, ruffled petals. Double flowers. Strong stems hold the flowers upright.

What's not to like about all of that?  

They also work well with my known dahlia varieties.  

They are, of course, challenges.  Beauty like that doesn't come easy.  And, they seem to be hard to grow.  Farmer Bailey has a whole post up with tips/tricks.  They even recommend growing them in tunnels.  (Which...I obviously don't have.) 

Fungus is something I'll work to watch for with these.  Airflow will help there.  And, that means...thinking about site-ing.  

I have three spots with full sun:

1.  Front yard. 

2.  Sideyard.

3.  Around the patio in the back.

4.  Tucked into the IB2DWs bed.

If I expand the front yard beds enough, these can go up there.  Otherwise, they'll have to go in a few spots.  

They reach almost 3 feet tall, so not front-of-border queens.