Mertensia maritima

Love this plant and we'll never garden without it. From the northern beaches of New England to Greenland and Japan to Alaska comes this beaut. Lustrous blue leaves and terminal clusters of small sky blue flowers puts this in a class all by itself. The possibilities of dynamic contrast with other plants makes you realize you just don't have enough room to capitalize on all the great ideas that come flooding in. Don't get bogged down and enervated by the choices - go with the first one - it will be great! Excellent spiller for containers if fed well. Loves a moist rich soil where it can easily be 3 feet across. Goes dormant in the fall so just nip off the stems and you are done with maintenance on this until the same time next year. Our kind of plant.

We are completely smitten with this rare, scrumptious wildflower. It grows (& glows!) along the beaches of New England, Greenland, & Ireland with irresistible sky blue, rounded leaves, whose lustrous “bloom” (like the finish on grapes) is sensitive to the touch. It has a low habit, growing 4” tall & about 1’ wide, & though it would probably prefer beach-front housing, would do equally well in a largish pot, at the edge of a garden bed, or in a rock garden. Needing average water & moderate soil fertility, I would definitely bait for snails, lest you let this delicacy go to waste! The beautiful flowers are pink in bud, & fade to blue with age, & are produced in clusters at the end of the stems from Spring through Summer. The leaves are reported to taste like oysters, which gives this plant its common name.