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Aristea ecklonii 'Little John' (Small Blue Stars) - A hardy herbaceous perennial resembling a Sisyrinchium that has fans of 1-foot-long bright green blade-like leaves. The flower stalks reach above the foliage with clusters of three to four star-like bright blue flowers that have purple stamens.
Plant in full coastal sun to light shade and irrigate regularly (full sun) to occasionally. Hardy to about 20 degrees F. A great little plant for the shade garden or companion plant for a large container planting.
Aristea ecklonii is native to central and southern Africa from South Africa north to Cameroon and Tanzania. The genus name is either derived from the Latin word 'arista' meaning "awn" or from the Greek word 'aristeides' meaning "the best" and the specific epithet honors the Danish apothecary, traveler, and plant collector Christian Ecklon (1795-1868), born in Denmark.
This dwarf form of the species we given to us by John Bleck so we named it for him and grew and sold it from 2011 to 2015.
The information displayed on this page about Aristea ecklonii 'Little John' is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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