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Blue Pepe October 10, 2012. Somehow, 2012 turned into the year of the nasturtium, at least from our back patio's perspective. I hadn't routinely grown these charming trailers in quite a few years – usually, by the time it's April, and Tropaeolum comes up on my list of seeds to start, I'm already too overwhelmed with perennial seedlings and other garden duties, and the nasturtium seeds have to linger in my seed box for yet another year. Luckily, they maintain their viability for quite a few years, so when I found myself with a bit more ambition this past April, I started four different varieties, and got some seedlings of each. Not all survived, but the three varieties that did all found their way into clay pots on our patio. They looked attractive there all year, with their elegantly rounded leaves – small and blue-green for the 'Blue Pepe' variety, larger and grassy green for the others. Flowers took their time in arriving, and even when they showed up in summer, there were only one or two flowers open on any plant at any one time. But now, in the final weeks of the garden season, they have stepped up their game, with a much more floriferous display. Sure, some of their leaves are fading, and their neighbors are starting to look bedraggled, but in the rough-and-tumble of the fall garden, that's par for the course. I've enjoyed those nasturtiums this year, and hope to try some more varieties in years to come.

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