PlantFiles: Aristea
Aristea ecklonii

Aristea ecklonii - one of nature's 'true blue' little beauties. It grows as a fan of pale green leaves, and has lovely blue flowers from Spring onwards which open for just a few sunlight hours. It can be found growing on the roadsides and on grass verges. I have had Aristea growing in a contained area in previous gardens.

This plant plays well with others here in southeast Texas--that is to say, it is not invasive here. But it easy to grow from seed if you want to.

I found this growing wild and planted it in my garden, but have come to regret that I did. It self seeds prolifically and I have been trying to eliminate it for several years now, but fresh seedlings still keep emerging.

Swordlike evergreen leaves in clumps are very similar to agapanthus in appearance, but flowers are not as nice. Winged, flattened flower stalks tend to flop over and aren't as conspicuous as their bright blue color would indicate. Very important to dead-head to prevent self-sowing. Drought resistant, but look a lot better with some water.

May 2003: now in their second flowering season, my aristeas have really started blooming profusely. Seem to be holding up the flower stems better too, so that one can finally admire the beautiful blue flowers. They close up at night, however.