Occasionally the common names given to plants baffle me. Others, however, represent the plant in a way that describes it so perfectly that the botanical name is not needed. 'Lavender Mist' easily fits the second category. It is a strongly upright plant with just a couple of flowering stalks extending about 7' up from a low-growing rosette of leaves. The stalks are a deep wine color and the leaves, at ground level only, are finely textured and bluish-green in color. From a distance the flowering plant looks like a haze of purple, when you step closer it's much easier to see the individual flowers.

Tiny, pendulous, lavender-purple balls appear, in late summer, in loose, airy clusters atop the stems. As seen in this photo the little purple balls open up into dainty, five-petaled flowers with contrasting yellow stamens. It is one of the more difficult flowers in my gardens to photograph as I must pull the stem down slightly in order to see the individual blossoms.....makes working w/ my camera a challenge for sure. When massed, the overall effect of the bloom is spectacular but it's worth the effort to photograph these beautiful, tiny flowers as well.