Purple Haze or Purple Rain?

Each spring, as the little bulbs break through the soil and bloom, one colour you're bound to see is purple! From crocuses to tulips and lilacs to rhododendrons, you'll be sure to see some shade of purple either in the tiniest carpet of plants, covering a flowering shrub, dangling from a trellis or festooning a tree. 

At home, I see purple first in my cluster of early irises. Purple perfumes each springtime garden with hyacinth, primroses, violets, lilacs, and wisteria. Later with peonies, roses, daphne, stock and lavender, amongst other flowers. There's a wide range of hues in the purple family: pale pastels such as lilac, lavender and mauve-coloured tulips. There's bright and bold purples we see amongst crocuses, irises and azalea. Deep and moody, romantic dark hues that border on black appear in tulips, larkspur and even heavenly-scented sweet peas.

Purple has many associations and is a colour that's been much revered in history. It's linked with piety, spirituality, sensuality, social change and royalty. Years ago, there were laws that forbade anyone outside the royal circle from wearing purple. Hence the phrase, 'born in the purple' and why this colour is associated with wealth and status. 

In modern history, we have cultural links through music and art such as Jimmy Hendrix's Purple Haze, Prince's Purple Rain and Alice Walker's 1982 novel (which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize), The Color Purple.

Purple is the mixture of red and blue, but in all its variations, we see undertones and hints of other colours. There are pale purples which have white in them and some have a bit of pink. Dusky purples have been muddied up a bit with grey and/or brown. There are deep purples that lean more dark red or more dark blue. Maroons have a brown undertone. Some purples have a multitude of hues: consider an amethyst. This jewel will vary from light lavender through to a rich, sophisticated purple (remind you of some fountain pen inks?). For some, this complexity is part of its charm.

Let's take a look around the shop at some of our purple items currently in stock. 

Also, now that warmer weather is upon us, note that our glass bottles of ink are available for shipping again!

It seems fitting to feature the new version of The Color Purple, since it highlights sisters. Next week, I've a little surprise for you involving my sister. Until then - enjoy the purple colouring up our gardens, parks and meadows!