A Passion for Delphiniums
Who can explain a horticultural passion? My love for old fashioned roses began just before we moved to Heath in 1979 and is owed to Katherine White's description of a rose catalog – not even the roses exactly - in her book Onward and Upward in the Garden.
Edward Steichen who is known for his gorgeous black and white photographs developed an almost inexplicable passion for the delphinium. What a devotion to blue he must have had.
He was always an ardent gardener and early in the 1900s he became interested in genetics and plant breeding.. He worked with cleomes, poppies and other flowers, as well as delphiniums which were his favorites.
Beginning in 1928 he began raising five acres of delphiniums at his home near West Redding, Connecticut. He once told a visitor, “This is where the blue begins.” I just imagine those five acres of blue, all bordered with the sunflowers he hybridized. I think it must have been like looking at heaven spilled across the landscape, every shade and mood of the sky with the shining sun.
There is no doubt that that the delphinium is a magnificent plant with spires of blossom in every shade of blue from pale to royal as well as lavender, mauve, purple and cream. Sometimes their petals have an iridescent sheen. If you look in nursery catalogs you will find listings for Magic Fountain hybrids, Blackmore and Langdon Delphiniums, Pacific Giants and several other varieties. Sometimes the 'bee', the center of each flower is white or black or bicolored. They range in height from six feet to bushier dwarf varieties that are only two feet tall.
I have been growing a clump of Connecticut Yankee delphiniums in my Sunken Garden for several years, but it was only recently that I realized its connection to Steichen.
Steichen was aware of the problems with delphiniums, notably the tendency to be knocked down in heavy spring rains and the necessity for artful staking. He had hybridized many of the tall delphiniums, but when he set to work to create what became the Connecticut Yankee he knew that the wanted large flowers on a sturdy, bushy plant.
In the early 1960s he successfully created such a delphinium, one that would come true from seed. He gave the plant to a professional hybridizer, Frank Reinelt, who introduced it for sale in 1965. Of course, I knew none of this until last year.
Last year I came across a striking color photograph in a magazine showing a woman dressed in yellow with a green beret in the embrace of a dozen spikes of delphinium against a dark sky. The photo was taken in 1933 by Steichen and the caption said it was possible that the woman was his second wife.
That was my first inkling of Steichen's passion.
Later I was reading Alan Lacy's book Farther Afield, one chapter of which describes Lacy's discovery of Steichen's devotion to the delphinium. In fact, he learned that in 1936 Steichen persuaded the Museum of Modern Art to mount an exhibit of his delphiniums. He brought them in by the truckload and for one week, from June 24 to July 1, they were on display in those very modern halls. The show was a sensation and the New York Herald Tribune lauded it. Never since has MoMA devoted an exhibit to a live flower.
At that time the Museum of Modern Art was housed in an old townhouse on West 53rd Street in New York. The new building of steel and glass was barely a dream, but its galleries would have exhibited the bright and thought provoking work of the modernists.
I think of what New York must have been like in 1936. A hard time for many people. And yet summer does come to New York. The sun is high and shines more warmly down into the steel canyons. Fresh sea breezes off the harbor and the encircling rivers thread their way through the streets. But the city is a grey place, the blue sky so high and faraway that it is often forgotten.
I can imagine what a stunning impression those delphiniums must have made on New Yorkers. Surely the delphinium possesses more shades of rich and delicate blues than ever found their way to the palette of even the greatest painters.
It is just delightful that we can all possess this richness. The delphinium is a cool weather flower that thrives best in New England and the Pacific Northwest. They like sun and rich soil that is not too acid. I lime the soil in my Sunken Garden where I have planted my delphinium and some of the roses.
In addition to my single clump of Connecticut Yankee, I planted some annual delphiniums, called larkspur. The foliage is very fine and ferny and I find the small spikes of small flowers wonderful with their resemblance to their bigger cousins. The colors and flower forms are similar, including a tiny bee in the center.
The delphinium also makes a good cut flower. Whether you have it in your garden, or in a vase on the table, you have a bit of heaven.
May 2002