Designing with Blue

My how we love blue flowers.

From “A Gardener Comes to Term with Blue” in the fall issue of Pacific Horticulture:

When I talk of blue, you realize, I mean true primary blue, or those blues diluted with white or fortified with black, not the blues tainted with pink, or lit up with yellow. I list turquoise and periwinkle among my favorite color, but consider neither blue True blue, so rare in nature, finds its most glorious expression in flowers: forget-me-nots, sages, and gentians.

(Daniel’s caveat emptor: though I find all of the following flowers to be true blue. However, due to the instability of blue pigments and under the influence of climate, growing conditions, or the perception of the eye of the beholder hues may veer into a purplish territory. For an example: the many blue-flowered members of the borage family will change colors as the pH of the flower changes over time, often indicating whether it has been pollinated or not.)

Spring:

Bellevalia pycnantha

Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’; C. ‘Mt. Haze’; C. ‘Julia Phelps’

Chionodoxa forbesii ‘ Blue Giant’; C. sardensis

Corydalis flexuosa ‘Blue Panda’; C. ‘China Blue’; C. ‘Pere David’

Hyacinthus ‘Delft Blue’; H. ‘Blue Jacket’

Lithodora diffusa ‘Grace Ward’

Mertensia paniculata; M. virginica

Muscaria armeniacum ‘Valerie Finnis’; M. a. ‘Blue Eyes’; M. aucheri ‘Blue Magic’

Myosotidium hortensia

Myosotis scorpoides; M. sylvatica ‘Royal Blue’

Omphaloides cappadocica ‘Cherry Ingram’

Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’, P. ‘Benediction’; P. angustifolia subsp. azurea

Scilla siberica ‘Spring Beauty’

Syringa vulgaris ‘President Lincoln’

Tulipa humilis ‘Alba Coerulea Oculata’

Viola ×wittrockiana ‘Whiskers Light Blue’; V. ‘Delta True Blue’

Summer:

Allium azurem

Amsonia hubrichtii ‘Blue Ice’; A. tabernaemontana

Anagallis monellii

Centaurea cyanus ‘Blue Boy’

Delphinium grandiflorum ‘Blue Butterfly’, D. g. ‘Blauer Zwerg’, D. ‘Blue Bird Group’

Gentiana acaulis; G. asclepiadea; G. septemfida; G. ‘True Blue’;

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Enziandom’; H. m. ‘Nikko Blue’; H. m. ‘Eisvogel’; H. m. ‘Libelle’

Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’

Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’; N. d. ‘Oxford Blue’

Fall:

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides; C. willmottianum

Saliva azurea; S. chamaedryoides; S. guaranitica ‘Argentine Skies’; S. patens ‘Cambridge Blue’; S. reptans; S. uliginosa