Color Story: Celiosa in Bloom

a closeup of celiosa plants with burgundy leaves

For about a dozen years now, I've been enjoying the cerise variety of this flower in pots and plots along my street. Downtown Brooklyn is pretty competitive about gardening and it's hard not to appreciate the efforts every summer. Of all the varieties on display, I get the biggest thrill from the Celiosa. It's eye-searing shade of deepest, deepest cerise is transfixing! One year I thought they'd been skipped, but the plants only came up late. Whew! 

So a few weeks ago I was strolling around upstate and found these potted in downtown Rochester (State Street, to be exact). There was not only cerise, but also orange, yellow and pink! Too much beauty to ignore...

islands of beauty in a harsh expanse of concrete and granite

Nothing in the vicinity competes with the Celiosas' beauty. It decorates the municipal grounds with it's singular color and shape.

the cerise is so intense it seems to glow amidst other tones

While just as bright, the yellow and orange don't have that electric undertone that suffuses the cerise blooms. One interesting thing: the orange flowers have bright pink tips.

citrus shades in the heart of the city center

inspect closely to see the vibrant pink tips on orange blooms

Would it even be a Lotus & Fig post without some pink in the mix? As bright as the orange and yellow blooms, the pink bringing that uplifting punch that makes it such an indispensible color (why else are so many adults flaunting nowadays?). 

small but precious blooms coming along in the late summer

light and dark: pink and cerise offer a full spectrum of beauty

If I ever have a garden, Celiosa will be the first seeds in.