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Blue, one of our favourite colours in the garden.
Most of the flowers that we grow are not primary colours, with the exception of clear yellow and red tulips and a handful of other flowers. Most flower colours contain a touch of another colour. Blue comes rarely as a pure colour, the purple-blue of bearded irises and campanula, are more common than true blues in our flowers.
Blue ranges from the pale powder blues of plumbago to the deepest indigo blues of Salvia patens and the deep-purple blues of Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' and Clematis 'Jackmanii'.
Adjacent to green on the colour wheel, blue sits easily in any garden scheme. Cool, calmimg it seems to almost hover in dappled shade, and to bring a depth to plantings in other colours.
It is a colour that disappears early in the evening, becoming indistinguishable from the foliage around it. Choose the lightest blues for a garden to be enjoyed in the evening. |
The Colour Wheel - Blue |
Blue cools hot spring schemes - muscari and forget-me-nots calm vibrant plantings of tulips, narcissi and other brightly coloured spring plantings. (As forget-me-nots are so invasive, you can substitute Brunnera macrophylla which has the same sky blue flowers and lovely deep green heart-shaped leaves or in B. 'Hadspen Cream', edged with white.
Blue irises come in some of the purest blues, and some of the deepest. They also have wonderful spiky foliage that will add height and structure. Try bearded irises, or the elegant siberian iris (I. sibericia).
Aquilegias come in deep blue and these dainty flowers make a wonderful see through plant in the border.
Carpeting plants include the perennial cornflower Centuarea montana, with fascinating thistle flowers. Lithodora 'Grace Ward' (syn. Lithospermum diffusum 'Grace Ward') is a creeping sub-shrub that will fall over a wall or bank and is happy in a gravel garden, try it with Achemilla mollis.
Geranium himalayense is a mass of soft foliage in summer, covered with deep blue flowers. For a bold contrast try this with red flowered Geum 'Mrs J. Bradshaw', for a glowing warm scheme with golden-umber Geum montanum or deep pink Potentilla nepalensis 'Miss Willmott'.
Climbing plants are another way to add a touch of blue. There are many blue, as well as purple-blue and lilac-blue, clematis that will produce their sumptuous flowers over the summer. Clematis alpina 'Frances Rivis' is a delightful, deep blue spring flowering clematis. Th strong growing blue-flowered potato vine, Solanum crispin 'Glasnevin', is hardy in most regions. Hardenbergia, plumbago and thunbergia are wonderful blue-flowering climbers for warm gardens. |
Thunbergia grandiflora |
Blue flowering trees and shrubs will give a back-ground for paler pinks and lemon, white or a bold contrast with reds, oranges and the hot colours. The jacaranda is a tall, stately tree for warm gardens, covering itself with soft-lilac blue flowers in early summer. Ceanothus is a smlaler tree or large shrub that is a mass of blue flowers in summer and is suited to coastal and dry gardens.
Two very special blue plants are our own 'Chatham Island Forget-Me-Not' (Myosotidium hortensia) a plant that has huge ribbed glossy green leaves and sky-blue forget me not flowers. When settled it will provide one of the truest blues in the garden. Meconopsis betonicifoliais another covetable plant that is magnificent when happy and frustrating if your garden is too warm, too dry or too exposed!
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Using Blue |
Some Blue Flowered Plants
Bulbs
- Allium
- Anenome nemorosa 'Robinsoniana'
- Camassia
- Chionodoxia
- Hyacinth
- Iris
- Muscari
- Scilla (bluebells and others)
Iris reticulata
Annuals
- Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower)
- Cerinthe major 'Purparescens'
- Lobelia
- Myosotis (forget me not)
- Nigella (Love-in-a-mist)
- Omphalodes linifolia
Perennials
- Aconitum
- Ajuga pyramidalis, A. reptans
- Anchusa
- Aquilegia
- Baptista
- Campanula - C. latifolia, C. glomerata,C. persicifolia, C. portensclagiana and others
- Centaurea montana
- Delphiniums
- Erigeron
- Eryngium
- Geranium
- Lupin hybrids
- Meconopsis
- Myosotidium hortensia (Chatham Island forget-me-not)
- Phlox
- Pulmoanaria
- Salvia patens, S. guaranitica, and others
- Veronica gentianiodes/
Geranium himalayense
Climbing Plants
- Clematis durandii, C. Prince Charles, Perle d'Azur, C. alpina 'Frances Rivis
- Solanum crispin 'Glasnevin', blue potato vine
- Plumbago auriculata
- Hardenbergia
- Thunbergia grandiflora
- Wisteria
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Jacaranda mimosifolia
Classic Blue Delphiniums
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