Blue Blooms Smiling At Me
We are now in that transitional stage between the spring and summer flowers. Lots and lots of foliage and buds, and lots of green. Beyond green, it seems that the dominant color right now is blue. This is not due to any planning on my part, it just worked out that way.
The King of Blue right now in my garden is wild indigo (Baptisia australis). This native member of the pea family is long-lived and gets quite substantial. It’s another plant that seems to be smaller this year than normal, and I’ve only had to do very light staking to keep it from flopping.
It’s also a huge favorite of the bumble bees. There are definitely more bees this year than last, and sometimes I think they are all hanging around the wild indigo.
As always, they are lots of fun to watch. I’m always fascinated by the yellow clumps of pollen in the pollen baskets.
The blue star in the back garden is just about done blooming, but the blue star in the front (Amsonia tabernaemontana) is still going. The blue star has also been more compact than usual this year and has not needed any staking.
Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’ is floriferous as usual in June. I’ve got it repeated in several spots around the front garden. You can have your fancy ‘Rozanne’, I say, just give me good old ‘Johnson’s Blue’, even if it does get a bit sprawly.
Here’s JB in the front Island Bed with some wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis).
And here’s a close up of the flowers.
Geranium renardii ‘Tschelda’ is another blue hardy geranium in my front garden. This year it is looking healthy enough (I love the felty foliage), but there is only one cluster of flowers. They’re nice flowers, but even so.
Salvias are also adding a lot of blue to the garden. Along the sidewalk border there are a mix of Salvias – ‘May Night’, ‘Blue Hill’, and ‘East Friesland’. The Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) is still blooming at the far end, providing a nice contrast.
In the parkway bed there are clumps of Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, which is maybe more purple than blue but still a very good Salvia that stays upright.
Finally, I should mention the Mexican petunia (Ruellia simplex), which I am growing this year in both borders and containers. If Florida and such places this is a terrible invasive, but in Chicago it can only survive as an annual. I like thd blue/purple petunia-like flowers combined with the upright habit (this plant is not actually related to petunias).
Thanks to all these plants, the front garden is full of blue dots and dashes. (Oh, and I forgot to mention the Nepeta!)
Do you have blue flowers blooming in your garden right now?
You didn’t mention Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis). I know it only blooms from dawn until noon, but the blossoms are an iridescent sapphire blue unmatched by any other flower.
Over the years I have begun to appreciate this plant more and more. Wonderful shade of blue.
Beautiful photographs. I adore blue in the garden. Nepeta is my favourite blue at the moment. I am growing Sixhills Giant and thankfully the cats just want to sit next to it not roll around in it and destroy it! Oh, and of course delphiniums, can’t forget those.
I grow a lot of nepeta, mainly ‘kit kat’ and ‘Walker’s Low’. We don’t have a cat any more, so that’s not a problem.
Not so much blue in my garden at the moment, there is Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’ and I also have nepeta.
We grow ‘Indigo Spires’ as an annual here. I grow lots of nepeta, an extremely useful plant.
Gorgeous – Love Baptisia!!!
It’s a great plant. And of course there are also white and cream species, plus the many cultivars out there now.
I do have blue/purple.. lots of iris! Your looks beautiful!!
Iris is one thing I have very little of, and the ones I do have are done blooming.
I DO have a little bit of blue – spiderwort and one other whose name i always forget. I’m curious. What is that little yellow bloom in the photo of the Salvia ‘Caradonna? It’s ANOTHER one that I have. I can never remember if it’s a “weed’ or not. Sometimes I pull it out; other times I let it show off 🙂 Right now I have a few myself growing into a Bleeding Heart…
That yellow bloom is celandine poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum. I mostly let it spread in my garden and you can buy it from nurseries. Some people do think of it as a weed, though.
I have lots of blue plants. Last year I sowed and planted the baptisia. The plants went black and I thought they had died. But they came back this spring, and look nice and hopefully they will flower. Lots of different salvias are blooming along with Geranium Johnsons Blue and I also have a Renardii which bloomed for the first time this year. I don´t think it will ever be a large plant. My nepeta Walkers Low is a favourite with the bees, and although it flops all over the place I still love it.
Baptisia is a tough plant though slow to establish. My renardii looks vigorous and has great foliage. It bloomed well last year so I am puzzled about the lack of flowers this year.
Ruellia simplex in my garden is a single root-hardy perennial plant that rarely blooms and never gets bigger. I am still waiting for reseeding and invasiveness.
We have moved into Hydrangea mode and blue is everywhere.
No blue hydrangeas here – too much lime in the soil. I guess I should be really happy that this Ruellia blooms nicely and obligingly dies in winter.
Thanks for alerting us to all the beautiful blue flowers. But as George Carlin asked, Where are all the blue foods? Do you know?
On the blueberry bushes. Also the blue cotton candy at the carnival.
Me encantan las fotografías son geniales. Ha estado un regalo el visitar tu bloc, te invito a visitar el mío y espero que disfrutes del post de esta semana, la decoración hindú de jardines y si no eres seguidora me encantaría que lo fueras, te espero en mi bloc elracodeldetall.blogspot.com
Thanks for commenting – I don’t speak Spanish so I’m going to have to find a translator.
Like you I have lots of buds, full of lots of promise, and lots of foliage. Our summer has been wet and warm so far, so growth has been incredible! I have some blue – Nepeta ‘Sixhills Giant’, Salvia and Tradescantia, but pink predominates due to the peonies and roses.
I have a single pioneer Tradescantia flower, but most are still in bud.
Beautiful!
Thanks.
For my garden here in the Charlotte area, the answer depends a bit on how much lavender you allow in your definition of blue. Taking the liberty that is mine to exercise in calling out the visible blue now: an unknown Hydrandgea macrophylla, hydrangea ‘Twist and Shout,’ Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue,’ and ‘General Sikorski’ clematis. My two vitex trees are just beginning to open and should be blue, blue, blue in a week.
Oh, yes, scabiosa is a lovely blue. As to definition, I take a very tolerant view that includes shadings to lilac, lavender, and purple. If you are blue-ish, in my view, that is close enough.
Yes, I love blue flowers, huge patches of Johnsons blue in shade and sun, in borders intermingled and on their own. They do not repeat flower for me though when I cut them back, so I enjoy this time. The Iris are all nearly over now, except a few pale blue Jane Phillips, lots of Salvias, and a swathe of Phacelia tanacetifolia. I very much like the wild Indigo, the flower and leaf are a wonderful colour combination.
The wild indigo may grow well for you, plus there are many cultivars now. Just be aware that it gets pretty big and, once established, cannot be moved.
Stunning shots of the front garden Jason! I love all of the blue! So much beauty happening by you! Here is to a great week! Nicole
Thanks, Nicole. Hope the rest of your week is good. Sounds like you have some ambitious summer plans.
You are lucky to see so many bees. I have definitely noticed a decline here. I see some but not nearly as many as normal.
Well, there are more than last year but definitely fewer than a few years ago.
I’m very envious of your lovely Baptisa. I planted one 3 springs ago and it produced one flower last year… none this year so far, although it looks happy enough otherwise! I’ve had loads of Veronica flowering and now the lavender, some Nepeta too and a hardy borage. Oh and Geranium “Rozanne”! 😉 (Don’t know Johnson’s Blue but will have to look out for it).
I wonder why it isn’t growing for you? Do you have very acid soil? Did you place it in sun? After three years they would normally be pretty big. Sorry to hear it hasn’t thrived in your garden. It is native to this area so it does grow well here.
Chalky soil… maybe too much sun? Or perhaps it’s just too dry? I’ve been told it takes a while to get established so I’ll wait and see what it does next year. The foliage is nice anyway!
Your Baptisia looks great. One can never have enough blue flowers in the garden.
Amen!
Blue is my favorite color but since I’m color blind people tell me that many of the blue flowering plants that I have are actually purple. I like them anyway-they’re blue to me.
Me too. I am very broadminded in determining what qualifies as blue.
The Baptisia is blooming at the UW-Arboretum now, too. What a beautiful plant! Geraniums and Salvias are in their full glory here, too. And the pollinators are very happy!
As they should be!
First, love the Baptisia! I forgot I used to have some, and have been admiring it lately. I may need to try it again (that goes to our conversation on what to do when a plant species doesn’t survive in your garden). Second, your Johnson’s Blue are so big. Mine seem to be the same size they were when I planted them ages ago. Lastly, love the overview shot of the front garden. I’m enjoying seeing the “big pictures”.
When a plant dies on me I usually want to try something else (there are so many plants to try, after all), unless I have a different sort of site to put it in that might suit it better.
I love blue too and wild indigo is one of my favorite flowers. (And it does grow wild in SC.) Do you have salvia Mystic Spires? It’s especially great for its long season of bloom.
They do sell Mystic Spires at some of the nurseries around here. I did buy one and also some Black and Blue to grow with the perennials in the driveway border.
Love blue color in a garden as well, Jason. Geraniums always look nice and the photos with bumblebees are cute.
They are cute, aren’t they?
I just feel there can never be too much blue in a garden. Everything looks wonderful. Enjoy
It may be possible to have too much blue, but it wouldn’t be easy.
I do love blue flowers and you have some delightful ones here. My garden is very pink and purple at the moment but I do have some star of Bethlehem blooming, a lovely plant.xxx
For some reason I thought Star of Bethlehem was always white, didn’t know it came in blue. Now I know.
I love blue flowers too. At this time of the year, geraniums, campanulas and salvias. For a true blue you can’ t beat delphiniums and blue flax: Linum perenne. I grow Baptisia but it doesn’t do too well. It is perhaps a plant that does better over there than it does here.
I planted a North American wild delphinium this spring, but it won’t bloom before next year. Hope that it does well.
Blue and bees here too. Once the native bees arrived the activity picked up. I see you have catmint.That was the plant next to the Evening Primrose you asked about. I did not show my Amsonia, but I do have it in four places. It was smaller and tighter too for some reason. Late also but mine still is blooming strong. Your garden looks great.
Catmint. I’m thinking now I should use some of the taller catmints like Six Hills Giant as a filler in my beds.
Your Baptisia and Geranium are so far ahead of mine here on the shores of Lake Michigan. I wait patiently for my spring blooms. Thanks for the photos. Jack
We always used to love taking vacations in western Michigan, all the way from Warren Dunes to Beaver Island. How far north are you?
Hi Jason, I’m trying to think if we have any blue and the only thing that comes to mind if blue lobelia. Give the stage I’m at in the new garden I guess it’s understandable. In the old garden, there should be the blue of delphiniums and salvias, if that counts.
It certainly does!
Blues dominate in my garden at this time of year, too. My blue geranium and baptisia haven’t begun to bloom yet, but I have amsonia, blue siberian irises, and blue tradescantia.
My Tradescantia (T. ohioensis) is blooming, but we’re never out with the camera at the right time of day.
Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) is dominant in my Illinois prairie garden now. Just ethereal! Check it out: http://breakingwindfarm.wordpress.com/
I have that too – only wish it would keep its flowers open longer.
Your blooms are gorgeous. The peonies here are gorgeous and the fragrance is spectacular. I’m loving it.
I also have a predominance of blue at this time…that front garden is gorgeous with all the texture and blooms dotting here and there.
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