Delphinium

This is the first delphinium I have ever managed to get to flowering point!
I have bought the occasional plant, more in hope than expectation, but they are always eaten by slugs.
Last autumn there was a really cheap offer from one of the mail order companies for 18 perennials.
I always ignore these offers as the plugs are inevitably tiny and hopeless.
For some reason I succumbed, I think because there were some oriental poppies and scabious included, which I wanted.
When they arrived they were about 2cm tall! I planted them in a container in the greenhouse surrounded by slug pellets, and they did start to establish.
The very mild winter kept them green right through, and as spring came on there were signs of growth.
One morning there was an enormous slug, which had tucked in to one of the tiny delphiniums, naturally.
More slug pellets and most of the plants began to look promising, and by May the poppies were ready to plant out.
The scabious followed, and finally the delphiniums seemed at the point of no turning back and so I put them out into a new border with mulch around.
The problem is I do not like to use slug pellets in the garden as we have hedgehogs, but I put one or two by each little plant and crossed my fingers.
Et voila! I have six flower spikes! This one is the best blue, the others are rather purple but who cares!
There are still six plants in the greenhouse which have struggled to survive and I have forgotten what they are supposed to be, but they are beginning to get going now.
I may nurture them inside until next year!