Aconitum carmichaelli 'Arendsii' & Hosta 'Praying Hands' 26 October 2025

This year, with more time in my hands, since I have few obligations except for taking care of my cats Niña and Niña, I have been noticing more than ever the lovely fall colouring of my hostas. I have scanned quite a few. But yesterday I noticed the colour on the unusually small and pointed leaves of Hosta ‘Praying Hands’. Because my hosta friend, now gone, Wolfram George Schmid from Atlanta often told me that yellow looks more yellow next to blue and conversely the blue next to it, I scanned this combination.

The aconitum was one of my Rosemary’s favourite perennials not only because of its vivid blue but also because it blooms I the fall when most other perennials have given out for the year.

I do have by now, since I started in the summer of 2001, over 4000 plant scans, and I can almost imagine what the scan will look like, it is always a wow result to me. Because of late I have been obsessively re-reading all my Jorge Luís Borges I can make a Borgesian statement that every first time will be repeated over and over by first times.

That is why every plant scan is a first-time discovery.