Originally uploaded by tomygardenpath.

This time of year, my rock garden looks like this. Flowers peak out of the pine needles, amid the granite and quartz rocks. Most years, I plant light pink impatiens in this bed. But this season, I chose two shades of ageratum, a very light blue, and the more common purple. The colors worked fine, and I liked the look of the dusty miller planted with it. But, something wasn’t right. The flowers didn’t spread, and the dusty miller was too tall. Next, spring, the shade loving impatiens will be back.

I looked up ageratum this morning to see what other shades I could get and discovered that it was a member of the aster family. Sure doesn’t look like it. Also, found that it was native to South America. For some reason, I always expect flowers from there to look more exotic. These homey little plants are definitely not exotic!