The MGS Forum

Plants for mediterranean gardens => Annuals => Topic started by: John on July 07, 2011, 08:53:49 AM

Title: Delphinium staphisagria
Post by: John on July 07, 2011, 08:53:49 AM
Two years ago I was given a few seedlings of this Delphinium. In London it is fairly happy to continue from self sown seedlings but this winter I kept one back in a pot and it flowered beautifully last month. It is widespread in Greece especially through the islands and I have seen it in many places on Crete. Colour varies from muddy greens and almost grey through good blues and purples. No doubt there will be a pink variant somewhere and presumably a white.
It is a plant of sheltered habitats including valley bottoms, gullies and near human habitation. There is a good population of it round the generally abandoned village of Aradhena perched by the gorge of the same name in SW Crete.
As a side. One of our cats had a spell of being stressed which we treated with a homeopathic remedy. This was "staphisagria" an extract of this delphinium and it worked.
Title: Re: Delphinium staphisagria
Post by: Fleur Pavlidis on July 12, 2011, 09:53:49 AM
The Delphinium staphisagria growing wild in the MGS garden looks rather different from your photo. The size of the plant and the colour of the flowers seems to be dependent on where the seed has dropped: stunted and pale blue in the dry under trees, gigantic and vivid blue in irrigated beds in the sun and everything in between. This photo is from the packet I made for a gift of seeds to the participants at the 2004 MGS AGM.
Title: Re: Delphinium staphisagria
Post by: Jamus on July 21, 2013, 01:01:31 PM
John, is it possible your delphinium was D.requienii ? I grow that species and it looks a good match from that picture.
Title: Re: Delphinium staphisagria
Post by: John J on May 01, 2015, 04:58:11 AM
I realise that this topic has not been posted on for some time. We obtained seed of this plant from Sparoza a few years ago and they now pop up all over the place. They can reach over 1.5 m tall. These are the first to flower this year.