“Blue colour is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.” —John Ruskin
I am partial to blue flowers. In my summer garden there are many blooming, but sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, and the flowers are bluer. So I drove hundreds of miles to eastern Quebec, Canada, to Les Jardins de Metis. The lure was Meconopsis, the blue Himalayan poppy.
Elsie Reford created Les Jardins de Metis after recovering from surgery to remove her appendix. She was 54 years old. It was her garden for the next thirty years. For a while it was run by the Canadian government, but since 1995 it has been managed by her great-grandson, Alexander Reford.
Frank Kingdon Ward, a British plant explorer, discovered Meconopsis poppies in the Himalayan Mountains in 1924. Elsie Reford obtained seeds from the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh in the 1930’s. Today the garden has one of the largest collections of Meconopsis betonicifolia in the world.
“To walk along a path between gently sloping banks entirely veiled in the exquisite blue poppy is like going through some ethereal valley in a land of dreams.”
—Elsie Reford
Blue flowers can be grown in the garden from early spring until the final killing frost. The first blue spring flowers are produced by bulbs planted in the fall. Iris reticulata emerges with the crocus. It is always astounding to see fully formed irises, only a few inches tall, in the chill of early spring, often with a coating of snow. ‘Clairett,’ ‘Joyce,’ and ‘Harmony’ are blue forms.
In April, three small bulbs, scilla, chionadoxa, and puschkinia, should be planted in masses of at least one hundred to be effective. To plant a large number of small bulbs, I find that lifting a foot-square block of soil or sod and setting in a dozen bulbs saves time. Scilla siberica, Siberian squill, has sky blue bells on strong stems. Chionadoxa forbesii, a native of Turkey, also known as glory of the snow, has star-shaped periwinkle blooms with white centers. Puschkinia scilliodes, the striped squill, produces clusters of powder-blue stars with white stripes. These three early bloomers are perfect for tiny windowsill bouquets. They also gratify the gardener by self-sowing and appearing in unexpected places.
Hyacinthoides, bluebells, are available in two forms. H. hispanica, the Spanish bluebells, have more true-blue bells per stem than H. non-scripta, the English bluebell. Both are a foot tall and do well in perennial beds or woodlands. To walk in an English or Irish bluebell wood amidst thousands of bluebells is a magical experience that I recommend. The bigger cousin, Hyacinth orientalis, offers showy, fragrant clusters of stars in an incredible array of blues. ‘Delft Blue,’ ‘Royal Navy,’ and ‘Peter Stuyvesant’ are just a few.
By June, there are a couple of flowering onions, with lovely blueness. Allium azureum, the blue of the heavens, has cornflower-colored, small starry clusters. It should be planted in dense masses to be effective. A. caesium is a shade darker with a more substantial four- inch sphere. The blue highlight of June is camassia, a native of the northwest United States, which sends up stately stems covered with stars of blue or white. C. quamash, the Indian hyacinth, has lavender-blue flowers on fifteen-inch stalks. ‘Blue Melody’ is a darker blue with yellow-edged foliage. ‘Orion’ has deep-blue stars. C. cusickii and C. leichtlinii are American heirlooms. All camassias appreciate moist, fertile soil. It is puzzling that these blue beauties are not more widely grown.
“Then we had the irises, rising beautiful and cool on their tall stalks, like blown glass, like pastel water momentarily frozen in a splash, light blue, light mauve, and the darker ones, velvet and purple, black cat's ears in the sun, indigo shadow”
—Margaret Atwood
Once summer is upon us, there are many choices for blue flowers. Irises, salvias, veronicas, and campanulas alone could fill the garden. My top salvia choice is Salvia patens, not hardy in our climate, which has twelve-inch stalks with exquisitely shaped blooms of a saturated electric blue. One or two flowers protrude to the side of each stem, each with an upper hood, arching stamens, and a downward lower-lip. Veronica austriaca ‘Crater Lake Blue’ is a foot-high mass of gentian blue in June.
Centaurea montana is the perennial bachelor button with spidery blue blooms in early summer. If cut back, it will send up new growth and rebloom.
Its annual cousin, Centaurea cyanus, the wilding brought in from the fields of Europe, is the cornflower from which that shade of blue is derived. It does best directly seeded in the garden and often self-sown plants are the strongest. The genus, Centaurea got its name from the Greek centaur, Chiron, whose wounds were cured with leaves of the plant.
Many annual plants with blue flowers are valuable additions to the garden. Lobelia erinus is the common bedding and container plant available in stunning blues. It is often mishandled. It needs constant moisture for constant flowering. After getting scraggly, it can be cut back to rebloom and even potted up to bring inside. Consolida ajacis, or larkspur, is the smaller relative of the regal delphiniums. Its fringy leaves and branching habit make it a perfect companion in a mixed bed. Again, various shades of blue can be found.
Asperula orientalis, the annual sweet woodruff, is a delicate, ephemeral plant. Whirls of leaves are produced below tubular, fragrant powder-blue flowers which fade as they age. Borage officinalis was grown by the Greeks and Romans as an edible and medicinal plant. Any plant with “officinalis” in the genus is one that was grown in the official monastic herb gardens. The bright blue star-shaped flowers of borage are borne above hairy foliage. They were used to flavor drinks, which is how the nicknames “alewort” and “cool tankard” were derived. Cynoglossum amabile, hound’s tongue or Chinese forget-me-not, grows up to two feet with cyan blue clusters of blooms and are a terrific cut flower.
I’ve only touched on a few of the numerous blue flowers that are available. But I cannot end without mentioning our beloved forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica, the blue that can tie together a spring garden by naturalizing and appearing wherever it desires. I returned from my Canadian trip with a packet of Meconopsis seeds. Someday I may have the fabled blue Himalayan poppy in my garden.
“Its flowers were flawless, of that intense almost luminous turquoise blue one associates with the clear atmosphere of the roof of the world.” —Frank Kingdon Ward
August 2019
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