There are few truly blue flowers in the world, but fortunately those few are absolutely exquisite...
- I'd always thought of forget-me-nots as a fictional flower. You hear about them in old novels, you marvel at their oh-so-specific name, but you never actually see them around. At least I hadn't until this spring, when I fell head-over-heels for them. The tiniest bluest fairy flowers you ever did see! Here I've combined a small bunch of forget-me-nots with half a bunch of fresh spearmint and a couple sprigs of feverfew.
- Delphinium strikes me as a flower to grow when you have a serious garden. Somehow the fact that they're so tall (3-4 feet) seems to necessitate extra space! Totally worth the real estate when you consider this description from Martha Stewart: "The luminescent pale blue Delphinium Belladonna is a color rarely seen in the garden." There are many varieties of delphinium, many of them blue, but the Belladonnas are my favorite for exactly their luminous quality. They are a dozen dreamy shades of blue all at once, their diminutive witches' caps glowing in any light.
- I mentioned my love of morning glories when we were discussing poisonous plants, but I felt they deserved some attention for being so wonderfully blue, as well as toxic. "Heavenly Blue", if you will! One of the many great things about morning glories is that they generally love terrible soil- scrappy, rocky, sandy areas that other plants would turn their noses up at. Just soak the seeds overnight, throw them on your worst patch of land, and hope for the best.
- When I first saw a rosemary shrub in bloom several years ago, it knocked my socks off to see such dainty sky-blue flowers on such a hearty evergreen plant. I look forward to seeing all the rosemary bushes around San Francisco bloom every year, and hope to grow my own someday.
- Finally, of course, the blue trumpet vine of my dreams. We've discussed it before, so check out the comments for some helpful insights from your fellow gardeners. There's also a great blue trumpet vine forum over at Dave's Garden.
Images: Forget-Me-Nots by Tess Wilson, Delphinium from Longwood Gardens, Morning Glory from HubPages, Rosemary from CDN, Trumpet Vines from Belle Magazine Feb/March 2011, planting by Eckersley Garden Architecture, photo by Derek Swalwell, styling by Jacinta Le Plastrier.
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Don't overlook the truly hardy California freeway plant - agapanthus (Blue Nile Lily - and very ancient Egyptian-looking it is) and the lovely old-fashioned plumbago, which can still be found growing ramshackle in older gardens here in San Francisco.
My favorite (and easy to grow) blue flower is bachelor button (Centaurea cyanus). More of a cottage garden blossom, but looks fabulous in a recycled drink bottle or mason jar.
I would also add the False Forget-Me-Nots (brunnera). The flowers look very similar to Forget-Me-Nots but they have nice heart shaped leaves look good all season as opposed to the Forget-Me-Nots which die to the ground by the middle of the season (and typically reseed for the following year).
http://www.statelykitsch.com/plant-of-the-week-brunnera-macrophyla-false-forget-me-notsiberian-bugloss/
I also second plumbago. It has super bright blue flowers and the leaves turn a lovely bronzy/orange in the fall.
Also Virginia Bluebells are lovely (although their bloom cycle is short). There are also several bulbs that come in blue including a number of dutch and dwarf Irises and Chionodoxa (a small sweet early blooming bulb that will naturlize).
I second brunnera, plumbago, agapanthus (gorgeous!) and Virginia bluebells.
To the above I'd add:
platycodon (balloon flower)
the campanulas (too many to name, but not all are true blue)
the veronicas
the salvias (they lean toward purple a bit much)
amsonia (pale blue)
monks hood (grows wild at 4,000' in Idaho, too!)
flax
anchusa (short lived, tall plant)
grape hyacinth
periwinkle
comfrey (but PLEASE contain it, highly invasive; little stars that fall to the ground each night)
pulmonaria (lungwort)
s*o*m*e of the German irises
many other perennials but a little too purpley (camassia, geranium Johnson's "Blue")...
I worked as a landscape garden designer for 15 years. Early in the game one of my clients told me "you can fix any color disharmony in the garden with the addition of blue." I never forgot that lesson and always tried to incorporate blues.
How did you forget hydrangeas? Seriously, they are incredibly common, easy to take care of, you can change their flower colour by swapping out an alcaline additive to the soil with a lime aditive, they are hard to kill, give amazing blooms.
Still, glad to see this post! I love blue flowers!
Yes I am surprised Hydrangeas didn't make the cut. With sunflowers they make the most stunning bouquet.
Wish we could grow blue hydrangeas here in Zone 5!
don't forget borage! beautiful and cucumber flavored. grows like weed in here in oregon.
I would add that a couple of the bearded iris are pretty true-blue, as well as one or two varieties of penstamon. Also, if you're interested in annuals, lobelia comes in deep blue and sky blue varieties.
Thanks for all the additions, everyone! I'm going to print out this list and stick it in my gardening notebook. And Veslabeachgirl, what a lovely way to think of blue!