Obedient plant

Obedient Plant is this year's new love for me. I am not sure exactly when I bought this plant, but I know that it was prior to 2012.  So I have had it for a good long while.  And I must admit, I have never loved it. Or even really liked it, if I am to be honest.

The first year, I am sure, I had only one of them. And this is a plant that really needs a mass planting.  One Obedient Plant looks ridiculous - standing tall and alone with one little bloom on top. But, after the first year, I had many more. This plant seems to take over where ever I plant it, sometimes killing the nearby plants. Its roots are insidious,  lurking an inch below the ground, and spiraling out everywhere.

It looks stalky and ugly until late summer when it blooms.  But usually by that time, I am so exasperated by it that I have quit watering it, so it doesn't even really bloom.

Okay, and this is a bit absurd, but its full name is "Fall Obedient Plant"... and so when it starts blooming in August, I have always felt a little nervous:  but wait, you shouldn't be blooming now.  Silly, I know.

I remember telling my mom that I bought this new plant and her one comment was, "That plant is not very obedient."  And I quickly learned what she meant.

I have moved it from my front porch bed, to my backyard shade bed (where it never did well - apparently its one requirement is sun), and then I put some in my front bed.  And I have always regretted planting it in its new location.

Well, this year, when I planted my solar garden, I filled it with the plants I knew I couldn't kill, the ones that lived despite my mistakes. To be honest, I was sort of filling up holes with plants I already had.

So, I dug up a bunch of these and planted them in this bed.  Since I was just starting this bed, the plants in it have received a lot of care and water... and this plant has just flourished.  We are now in mid-July, and I have fallen in love with its tall purple spires.  I have a number of yellow summer heat-loving plants, but not a whole lot of other colors, and I find this plant as a color contrast to what I already have.

Now, truly, in a year, I may be writing that I regret putting this plant in the solar bed, as it has taken over the whole bed... But for now, I will enjoy its beauty :)