Blooms Beginning On Our Lisianthus Celeb - Metallic Blue - August 2026

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August, already?  Yeeesh. The heat is here, but for the first time (for me as a gardener), so, too are the Lisianthus. As a cut flower in our garden.  

That means that I'm learning something new.  

The garden continues to reward patience.  In this case it is patience to see the blooms change color.  To their intended color.  Turns out, that's just what Lisianthus does:  it changes color as it blooms.  

Back in Spring, I bought some Lisianthus Metallic Blue (Celeb 2) plugs from Garden Club.  They arrived a bit early (my fault), so I potted-them-up and tried to keep them alive for a month-plus until I could plant them outside.  They went in the newly expanded Saratoga Ginkgo bed in late May.  

All eight plugs survived the first month indoors and have made it to August in the ground.  I protected them from rabbits with a little chicken wire cage, so I'm not sure if the rabbits would have gotten to these.

And, all eight are sending up flower buds.  But, I was pretty sure that Farmer Bailey / Garden Club had sent me the wrong variety.  After all...I ordered Metallic Blue Lisianthus.  These are all chartreuse lisianthus.  Almost lime green color buds.  What the heck??

Lisianthus Celeb - Metallic Blue

Here, below, is a wider look at the Lisianthus sending up buds.  But....lime green buds. 

Lisianthus Celeb - Metallic Blue

I was about to sit down at my machine and zip off an email to Farmer Bailey telling them:  "Hey guys....love these, but I think they're the wrong variety."

But, I took a beat.  

That's where that idea of patience comes in. 

I searched around the Web and found some posts talking about how Lisianthus all change their color as they bloom.  

Hmmm...maybe that's what's going to happen with mine?

Patience.  Again.

I waited a couple of days and what do I see on one of the blooms?  See below for the photo of the most-open Lisianthus:

Lisianthus Celeb - Metallic Blue
Lisianthus blooms change color as they open-up.  This one is Metallic Blue Celeb 2. 

What do you know?!?  It is turning color.  Blue?  Not really.  But, certainly purple.  

Pretty neat.  

Patience rewarded.   Will I grow these again?  I'm not sure, but despite being slow-growing, they've mostly been trouble-free for me.  

Now, I have to go out and watch/read about how to harvest Lisianthus for cut flowers.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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