Last April, Roger filled the containers near the kitchen of our Napa Valley garden with a lightly scented plant I wasn’t familiar with – heliotrope (or Heliotropuim arborescens). While this plant can come in several shades of purple, he chose the lightest purple/white and paired it with ‘Sophistica Limegreen’ petunias. We even added a few of these plants to our planting beds.
Heliotrope was a huge success in my garden this year. It bloomed all spring, summer and fall long and to my astonishment, in November, is still going strong! (Yes, it’s a little tired, but is still full). This plant has hands-down been the best container plant I have ever had up here.
The plant is named for the Greek words “helios” which means sun and “tropos” which means turn. All heliotropes turn to face the sun. Heliotrope can be an annual or perennial depending upon where you live. It remains to be seen whether or not it will come back on its own next year – we’ll see. It prefers warmth as found in Zones 10 and 11, so it was really happy in the Napa Valley, but may die off as it gets colder up here.
Bonus: Heliotrope is related to the borage family and as such attracts bees, so it’s a wonderful addition to any garden.
