Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 6 JulyPurple Petra basil on 6 July, each pair of leaves set square across the one below so every growing tip reads as a four-pointed rosette, the blades quilted deep and near-black purple over magenta midribs, two of them patched half green.Week of 6 JulyPurple Petra basil on 9 July, near black-purple through leaf, stem and midrib alike, each opposite pair of leaves set square across the pair above it and every blade quilted and sunken between the veins — a few still bronze-green — in hard low sun.Week of 20 JulyA Purple Petra basil on 20 July, so dark it reads black until the sun catches a pewter sheen across leaves quilted and puckered between their veins — magenta midribs running brighter than the blades, a few edged in a thin line of lime.Week of 31 AugustPurple Petra basil on 3 September, its leaf pairs turning ninety degrees at each node so every shoot reads from above as a stack of crosses — near-black but for the lavender-gray where the sky slides across the gloss, one tip already knotted into bracts.
