My favorite color is blue but it's a color that we rarely consider in our garden. So many plants that are billed as "blue" are really lavenders or purples.An instant way to add blue to the garden is to add some magnificent containers. I took these photographs on Sunday but would not purchase these containers at the the store I saw them. The prices were totally ridiculous, running from $299 to $799 per container.
Perhaps those high prices were the reason that there was still so much stock in the container section of this nursery? Luckily I stopped at another nursery on the way home and found very similar containers for a fraction of the price. I plan on going back there and will try to remember to take some pictures.
I did see this blue container there, peeking out through a skirt of Hydrangeas. Lovely! Better yet is the tropical feeling Hosta planted in the container. Hosta make excellent container plants.
There definitely are some true blue perennials in the garden, I snap them up whenever I can. This is a Playtocodon, a balloon flower and it's a double variety.
Hardy Geranium 'Rozanne' is blue although my camera has changed the color to a lavender. It's been blooming for two months now and I'm extremely happy I finally bought it this spring.
Hydrangeas come in different colors. Many times you will buy one that is one color only to find it change color completely in your garden. I have one variety that was pink in the pot, turned chartreuse the next year and settled down as a deep blue.The color of your Hydrangea blooms is dependent upon the type of soil you have. Here on Long Island we have acidic soil which tends to turn most Hydrangeas different shade of blue. Sometimes though if you plant your Hydrangeas close to the foundation of your house you can get them to stay pink, another trick is to add lime to the soil. As for me, I prefer the blue ones anyway so don't do anything special to change the color.
On Sunday I went to Plant Field Arboretum. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, most of the gardens were not at their best, either before bloom or in most cases after bloom. It was a whole different scenario here in my own garden which is just bursting with color right now.This photo shows a Lace cap Hydrangea combined with Fallopia japonica. It was a stunning combination!
Here at Old Country Gardens a much simpler combination of Platycodon and Daylilies but still just as beautiful.Do you have blue in your garden?
12 comments:
Blue is one of my favourite plant colours and bees too I hear.
I love Geranium Marginatum but my favourite is Agapanthus which I grow in pots and they flower more prolifically. I am a fan of growing Hosta in pots too but that's to keep away from slugs and snails.
The nice thing about pots is you can re arrange them so easily. I find when my lillies have finnished flowering I came move back to the working area and put the Agapanthus in their place as by then they are flowering.
Actually I would have said no. But me and the Carpenter talked about the colours in the gadern the other day and we realized that we do have a surprising lot of blue! Blue calmes down the beds when you have a lot of red and white in them. And blue fits in with averything! As you say there are many different varieties of blue, purple and so on but we call them all blue /gittan
I love blue too, Melanie. Lots of mophead Hydrangeas in the area I live but they have bright blue and dark pink on the same shrub! It is very unusual to see and I have never seen it anywhere else, there is no soil amendments or fertilisers added - I think it may be where the builders left rubble in the ground. Our soil must be a real mixture, a few are more purple from a more neutral soil. It all makes it difficult to know what plants to grow were.
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
Blue looks lovely in the garden especially next to all of the green. I have a couple of blue Plumbago bushes that have blue blooms, almost periwinkle. I love them!
Michelle
Blue was the colour that started what has morphed into a gardening obsession!
Corydalis is my favourite of the blues in the garden (C. elata, C. flexuosa 'Blue Panda,' and 'Golden Panda')at the moment. I also have blue flowered Penstemons, and am waiting for a blue Himilayan poppy that is on order for next spring..... perhaps the ultimate 'Holy Grail plant where blue is concerned.
My favorite color! These pictures are wonderful eye candy! Thanks for sharing. -Jackie
Blue is my favourite colour in the garden as well. Meconopsis,agapanthus, mainly the dwarf one,bluebells naturalised under rhodies, a rhododendron named St. Breward, and the lovely little alpine anenomes.
Love your photo of the hosta in the blue pot, must try that one.
I have bush morning glories blooming right now and that's a beautiful nautical blue. Not a big blue fan but it's hard to not like it in this plant.
Love the idea of planting hostas in a (blue) container! I'm excited to try that.
Thanks!
Anne
Hi, I have found the prettiest blue flower. It is Blue Dze Evolvulus. I have planted it in flatter container, it looks so good. It hangs over the tin so nicely. It calls for full sun, but I put it on the front porch of my old cottage home, where it gets all afternoon sun. I hung this cute plant on my old fashioned screened door, which is one of two french doors. Debra
Hi, Melanie!!
The other day I bought five platycodon . The are not double like yours.
Could be a good idea to plant them in pots?
Sorry for my poor English!!
Best wishes
María José
Maria Jose, Your English es mas mejor que me Espanol! I wouldn't recommend planting platycodon in pots. They have a very long tap root like a carrot only it curls. They probably wouldn't like being planted in a pot at all.
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