Hopley's Showy Oregano;
or, Purple Marjoram
"You are the daughter of the sea,
oregano's first cousin.
Everything you do is full of flowers,
rich with the earth."
-Pablo Neruda,
1904-1973
1904-1973
Origanum laevigatum 'Hopley's Purple' likes dry, sandy soil, in full sun. Ours is under the eaves of the house where it gets little water. It has a semi-creeping behavior for its stems of tiny leaves, with a combined upright & leaning habit for the sprays of wee purple blooms, as much as two feet tall, usually a bit shorter.
The flowers are tiny, but are produced by the thousands on thin stems. They make pleasingly aromatic cut flowers for in the house, & also dry well. It is in general regarded as ornamental, being not flavorful enough to use as a spice, so is commonly called "Garden Oregano" or "Ornamental Oregano." It is even so sufficiently aromatic to add dry leaves to potpourri.
The leaves are also quite small, starting out purplish & aging to sage green, or dark green with bluish sheen.Whenever 'Hopley's Purple' begins to look lanky or untidy, it can be clipped practically to the ground, & will grow back very much renewed. It should also be sheered back either very late in autumn or in winter. It comes back each year as a slightly larger clump of increasing subtle beauty. In areas where winters fall below Five degrees F., it will not perennialize, but can still be grown as an annual.
A single slow-release fertilizing in spring is more than sufficient. Heat-hardy for the xeriscape sun-garden, it vanishes in winter & returns rather late in spring, flowering by June & in full display by July (when the first photo was snapped), the blooms persisting until October (when the second photo was snapped) or until the first hard frost.
It is apt to bloom continuously for summer & much of autumn, sometimes even without sheering, but if there is an interuption in the flowering periodic deadheading or sheering will incite vigorous rebloom. The flowers are liked by butterflies & other beneficial insects. It can be propogated from cuttings, or spring division.
The species is native to Turkey & Cyprus. 'Hopley's Purple' is a select cultivar developed at David & Nancy Barker's Hopley's Plants, Ltd., in Hertfordshire, England, the commercial area of the garden having been established primarily to cover the expenses of a very extensive & significant display garden, open to visitors May through October.