you enjoy looking at a beautiful body of blue water you might find that adding various shades of blue to your garden pleases you just as much.
Blue flowers of Caryopteris Sunshine Blue can be nicely paired with cream flowers or variegated leafed plants with white tips or with gray leaf plants for a cool, dramatic look. For a breezy, casual look, blue cornflowers can be mixed with everything in the color wheel.
Pollinating insects such as butterflies and moths see color as an indication of a food source. Lungworts, larkspur, forget-me-nots and other borages change color between pink and blue. The color change tells pollen seekers that the flower has aged and is past its pollination prime.
For us, bright colors appear closer and cool colors such as blue, gray and white appear farther away. In a small garden or for a collection of potted plants, cooler colors make a larger impact.
Some plants that add blue to the garden have the word blue in their name and are easy to spot. For example, blueberries, blue rug juniper, blue star creeper, blue globe onion, Himalayan blue poppy, Nikko blue hydrangea, Costa Rica Blue salvia, etc.
Others are not so easy to select if they are not actually in bloom. Blue flowering plants that you might not think of include: Lamb’s ears, borage, Salvia guaranitica, Monkshood, butterfly pea vine, etc.
Fall planted, spring blooming bulbs offer many blue possibilities from the first pale blue crocus, windflower, scilla and Virginia Bluebells to the deep purple grape hyacinth, to wisteria and purple iris a little later. Metallic blue Hellebores bloom before them.
Then come the violets, sweet peas, heliotrope and larkspur. Baptesia blooms early spring and then its gray-blue leaves remain as a backbone in the garden all summer and until the first freeze. Sea Holly or Echinops will take over providing blue flowers in the same semi-dry spot.
Love-In-A-Mist would work well with a little shade; plant them with Scabiosa or pincushion flower and balloon flowers for blooms until fall.
Clematis comes in so many shades and combinations of blue that it is difficult to choose. Heat loving morning glories crawling across a fence provide an easy-care cool look during the heat of the summer.
Toward summer, delphiniums add their blue to the garden and Blue Sails pea vine begins its climb. Blue oat grass planted with blue flowering passion vine is a soothing combination that attracts butterflies and skippers.
Cranesbill or hardy geraniums, Orion, Philippe Vapelle and the 2008 Plant of the Year, Rozanne, bloom in protected sun; Mrs. Kendall Clarke has pale blue flowers. The Blue Girl rose, planted with white daisies would make a dramatic perennial combination.
Plectranthus Mona Lavender will bloom all summer in half sun and there are dozens of succulent blue-gray plants such as Sempervivum “Violet Queen” for the rock garden.
Plumbago, both hardy and tropical, can be grown in a pot on a trellis or allowed to bloom and spread on the ground in a spot with six hours of sun.
With the new introduction last summer, of a heat tolerant lobelia, we can edge our flower beds with its abundant tiny, bright blue flowers. The heat loving Angelonia angustifolia can’t be beat for carefree blue flowers.
|
Select a Florist
