Aconitum napellus 5 October 2025

With most of my roses gone for the season the only colour besides the yellow leaves of my roses and hostas, is that of Rosemary’s Aconitum. She so liked their intense blue which greeted us in the fall.

As a little boy in school in Buenos Aires we often had to draw the Argentine flag. We were drummed into the fact that the flag was azul celeste (a pale sky blue). My suspicion is that Argentine coloured pencils included one that was pale blue.

Fragmentary Blue - Robert Frost

Why make so much of fragmentary blue

In here and there a bird, or butterfly,

Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,

When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—

Though some savants make earth include the sky;

And blue so far above us comes so high,

It only gives our wish for blue a whet.