Purple flower on a long stem
Flowers,  Gardens,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

Gallery: roses are red, violets are blue …

Or so the old rhyme goes. Actually of course, violets are violet, somewhere between red and blue. When I was young I used to say that green was my favourite colour, and I still love it, but shades of purple and deep pink have edged it into second place these days.

According to the Empowered by Color website the names violet and purple are interchangeable, and the meaning of the two colours is similar:

Both contain the energy and strength of red with the spirituality and integrity of blue. This is the union of body and soul creating a balance between our physical and our spiritual energies… purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

William Shakespeare ~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene 1

For this week’s Sunday Stills challenge, and for Becky’s Bright Squares, I present a selection of violet-coloured flowers – a couple of which truly are violets!

Upright purple flower in a field of daisies
Iris in Lammas Park, Ealing
Purple flower with bee
Bee on a Globe Thistle (I think)
Purple flower in front of a stone wall
Jacaranda in Faro, Portugal
Tiny purple flowers on a brick wall
Violets on a garden wall in Ealing
Purple flower
Pansy in a pub garden, South Ealing
Small purple flowers growing on a wall
Aubrieta on a neighbour’s garden wall
Tiny purple flowers among the leaves
Violets in the churchyard, St Mary’s, Ealing
Cluster of small purple flowers
Lilac in an Ealing garden
Shaggy purple flower
Knapweed by the Grand Union Canal, Brentford

The photos in Portugal were taken in 2016; the Ealing photos are mostly from 2020 and 2021, but the iris was taken in 2018

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