There was some debate on Twitter about a piece on blue flowers on Gardener’s World a while back. The argument went that most of those featured weren’t really blue.
Some of the wow! bluer flowers seem to be acid lovers, meconopsis and a number of gentian spring to mind, which I can’t grow. I did a quick audit in the garden one August morning. The camera and screen don’t render colours exactly either – but you get the gist. Those in the bluer spectrum, (salvia and chicory), make your heart beat that little bit faster when you stop to appreciate them.
From left to right:
Geranium himalayense
Hebe ‘Midsummer Beauty’
Gentiana asclepiadea – Willow gentian
Nepeta ‘Chettle Blue’
Campanula lactiflora ‘Prichard’s Variety’
Agapanthus ‘Headbourne hybrids’
Clematis x bonstedtii ‘Crépuscule’
Salvia patens ‘Guanajuato’
Salvia patens
Veronica longifolia ‘Marietta’
Chichorium intybus – Wild Chicory
Salvia uliginosa – Bog Sage
So there you have it, plus some clues as to a number of plant families, with if not true summer blues, certainly they can deliver blooms closer in colour.
- Veronicas
- Salvias
- Campanulas
- Geraniums (i.e pratense)
Just finishing in the garden now, Lobelia siphilitica, ‘Great Blue Lobelia’, (altho’ a bit of a purple tinge in mine).
Another late summer into autumn favourite, although there seems more purple in the blue this year, annual climber Morning Glory (ipomoea).
