Muscari armeniacum

Muscari armeniacum, Grape Hyacinth is a well-known bulbous perennial from the Western Mediterranean. Not rare, not unusual and not exactly exotic, Grape Hyacinth has one particular superpower quality that makes it an outstanding plant - its extraordinary intense blue colour, which - particularly when amassed in a drift - is like no other. It is a perfect plant for that part of your garden that has a woodland feel or in which you are trying to conjure up a magical or enchanted atmosphere. Yet Muscari armeniancum has another curious quality that - although not unique - is certainly rather remarkable. Its singular beauty is entirely invisible to plant snobs. The higher up the garden design food-chain you go, the more this blindspot seems to manifest until at the higher echelons of horticultural haughtiness this quintessentially charming plant is completely shrouded in a cloak of dismissive delusion that is so distorted that it is rendered beyond visible perception. Research into this intriguing intersection of botany and perceptual psychology originally suggested that the plant itself may be emitting a force-field that prevented some individuals from actually seeing it by acting upon neural receptors in a way that disrupts empirical evaluation and created a debilitating array of cognitive assumptions. But more recent papers have suggested that the causation is anthro-endogenous and that the individuals so afflicted are incapable of perceiving something that is so far 'beneath them'. The good news is that it is not thought to be innate but rather a learned response and that through careful observation and re-evaluation it can be unlearned and a more balanced perception can be nurtured free from cognitive bias. One can only hope so... In the meantime, plant a small experimental corner and - in the manner of garlic dispelling vampires - see what reaction it invokes...