I purchased Salvia ‘Madeline’ on a whim last spring. I was on my last stop on a day devoted to shopping at various garden centers throughout the city.

I’d never heard of Salvia ‘Madeline’ before I saw it, but it stood out on the table of perennials. Or perhaps it called out to me?

I was reminded of those videos from the humane societies or in the movies where someone goes in to get a dog and one scruffy mutt somehow manages to get the person’s attention and be the one chosen to go to a new “forever” home.

This particular salvia was like that.  It had two flower stalks, one broken off, but it  still had enough blooms remaining for me to notice the bi-color nature of the flowers.  I remember I looked around, hoping to find another, healthier, Saliva ‘Madeline’.  I saw none. This was it. Take it or leave it.

I plopped it into my cart, along with my other purchases and bought it.

Once I got it home, I unceremoniously found a bare spot in Plopper’s Field to plant it in. Then I cut off the rest of its blooms and let it grow on as best it could through a particularly hot and dry summer.

This spring, I was rewarded with more of the same blooms that caused me to buy this on a whim in the first place.  This was a good whim. I’m glad I gave in to it.

Let me be the kind of gardener who gives in to her whims, who never sticks to a precise list of plants.

Let me be the kind of gardener who always has a place in her garden for a new whim or two or three or a dozen.

Let me be the kind of gardener who understands that some of her whims won’t turn out like Salvia ‘Madeline’, but some of them will and the garden will be more interesting because of them.

May Dreams Gardens, a place of whims and dreams.