Although the white garden at Britain’s Sissinghurst Castle may be famous, I have always wanted a blue garden. Although there is a certain romantic appeal to a vista of pale white flowers glowing in the moonlight, white simply does not make a statement to me. I need color in my garden – pinks and purples and blues, perhaps a dash of yellow or red. White is an accent color, seen only in a few daisies which came up from last years toss of a wildflower mix into a back corner. My grandmother had a white snowball bush, and my mother had white spirea bushes along the front of the house – I cared for neither. I did like the white apple blossoms on the crab-apple trees in our old orchard, tinged with a blush of pink and heady with fragrance, but their show was brief, one glorious week in spring. No, it is color I crave and blue is my favorite color. Although my garden is predominantly pink and purple (see last years The Color Purple and the upcoming Rose Cottage), my attempts at introducing blue into my garden have not been very successful. Blue flowers may be a rarity in nature for a reason.
These are delphiniums from a Nova Scotia vacation so long ago that I’ve forgotten the name of the small sleepy town where we stayed, other than there was nothing to do after supper so we toured the local botanical garden. Certainly I was not into gardening back then, but the image of delphiniums against a picket fence was striking enough to warrant a picture, although my memory of the rest of the place is vague – I think there were roses past their prime?
And this is my one solitary blue delphinium, which bloomed one year and was never seen again, nor were it’s pink and purple cousins. The same thing happened with the lupines.
A neighbor of my mother’s had a beautiful display of delphiniums a few years ago, five feet tall and waving look-at-me, but he is a wonderful gardener. I suppose I can’t expect a scene out of Downton Abbey, if I don’t put much effort into it.
Then there was the blue rose, which came up a pale lavender/lilac at best. What a marketing scheme that nursery tag was, a scrawny thing, it bloomed for a few seasons, producing exactly one rose every year. I was so annoyed with it, that this year I tore it out when I was removing the dead Rose of Sharon beside it which hadn’t survived the winter.
Those pretty blue lobelia flowers in garden baskets look nice for a month or two at most, but do not survive the heat and neglect of July/August. I’ve given up on them too.
I love the first sign of Siberian Squill in early spring, especially vibrant with the contrasting yellow of daffodils.
There is a large swath of them growing wild along the river road and another neighbor has a lovely patch in her backyard, but I have never been able to find them in a nursery. Maybe next year I will remember to ask if I can dig some up. It’s another invasive species I wish would invade my back yard.
Blue Hydrangeas are always lovely, but how many bags of aluminum sulfate have I bought trying to get them to go true blue. I’ve had some some success with this bush near the side arbor, but only because the neighbor’s overhanging cedars make the ground naturally acidic. Last year it was covered with blooms, this year there isn’t a single one and yet all the other bushes have plenty. How do they decide which one is going to take a vacation?
Last week I dumped some more AlSo4 on the rest, hoping all the forecast rain would wash it magically into the soil, and had some success. At least they weren’t all lilac.
I had some luck with forget-me-nots this year, which a fellow gardener shared, somehow it hurts less when things don’t survive if they are free. Of the donated bunches I planted last spring, one came up at the front of the house, and two small patches on the side bed. This year I transplanted some more, hoping they will become invasive. They reseed themselves once past blooming.
My Heavenly Blue morning glories are the good old dependables, except one year when they didn’t come up at all. They are hardy souls and thrive on neglect once they get started, growing a foot a day in late summer. I blogged about them here – link – A Glorious September Morning.
Blue Morning Glories
This year I planted them in front of two recycled trellises, hoping they will be more contained so I don’t have to spend three hours tearing them off the neighbor’s fences in the fall.
Morning Glorious
I’m planning on checking out a blue clematis the next time I visit a nursery, but it must be blooming, so there are no surprises like the one I planted last fall which turned out a dark purple not the vibrant Jackmani I was expecting. All future flowers must show their true colors before they are purchased!
A few years ago a local garden tour brochure described one of the entries as the Blue Garden. I was so excited to see it – and so disappointed to find there were no blue flowers at all, except blue planters, painted rocks and bits of blue ceramic garden kitsch. I have a limited tolerance for most garden kitsch, no cutesy signs, rusty iron figures or painted trolls are allowed on my castle grounds. However I would like a cobalt blue garden cat to preside over my garden like Linda discovered at Walking Writing Wit and Whimsy. It would provide the blue color I desire, a dose of whimsy and it wouldn’t need watering. Forget the blue flowers, better to get a cat!
Have I missed any blue flowers? What is your favorite blue flower?
thehomeplaceweb 
How you have made me laugh. You sound the sort of gardener I am: I purchase packets of seeds which indicate beautiful blooms, seedlings that will give my garden a head start; am thrilled when anything comes up – look forward to the self-sown plants the following year … I now take what nature will provide and hope for the best, even if the seeds grow up to be dwarfs or appear in a colour not indicated on the packet. Keep planting!
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Thank you Anne! I have to admit I am a lazy gardener easily swayed by a pretty picture on a seed packet or tag but usually neglect the poor things when they appear.
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I love every blue flower you have there, and love cultivated beauty. But I also adore the true blue of wild chicory and always wish it was not mowed down as weed
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It is a pretty flower/weed too!
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I love your garden. I’ve never tried to get just one color to predominate in our garden, but it does look nice. My favorite blue flower is Morning Glories, but this year all we have is vine up the trellis and not one bloom. I’m bummed about that.
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Usually morning glories don’t bloom here until Sept, no matter how early I plant them (mid-May), one year all I had was vines, lots and lots of vines all over the back fence and no flowers. I wonder why that happens?
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I’m with you, Joni, on garden colors blue/pink/rose/purple. To me, the blues tend to ground the fanciful warmer tones. That’s why blue lobelia is perfect in hanging baskets of geraniums and ivy — until it turns brown and withered like weeds. I thought I was the only one who couldn’t keep them fresh and blue. This year, however, I decided to cut them back to the soil instead of pulling them out, just to see whether they stage a come-back later in summer.
Mother grew gorgeous blue hydrangeas in our naturally acidic soil under Southern pines. Daddy’s azaleas did well, too. My grandmother grew Morning Glory outside her front screen porch, so it’s part of my childhood from the earliest years. Here in Central Washington, morning glories are a ground vine with small white blooms, considered a weed; I happen to like them, although they’d be prettier in blue!
And I LOVE tall delphiniums! — in other people’s gardens and in garden books. They simply don’t survive in my garden. Must be something in the dirt, eh?
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Glad to hear I am not the only one who hasn’t had any luck with delphiniums. Let me know if cutting back the lobelia works. I am always tempted to get them in the May baskets. I haven’t spend much on flowers this year, as I knew I wouldn’t be gardening much due to the kitchen reno, so I didn’t waste the money, and now it is so hot & humid no one can out out in it. I am trying to put the kitchen back in order now and dishes away etc, so I have lots to do inside. Heat advisory all weekend.
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Love, love all of the flowers, so beautiful!
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I am clearly no gardener because I have never once contemplated blue flowers. But they are lovely. My method has been to learn to love the stuff that wants to grow. At my current house it’s orange daylillies. Before it was white lillies of the valley and multi color tulips.
We had a hydrangea that bloomed beautifully the first year we lived here then never bloomed again. I have no patience for recalcitrance in a garden, so out it went
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HA! I think that is an excellent method – to learn to love the stuff that wants to grow. But I could never learn to love orange day lilies which we call “Ditch Lillies” here as they grow all over the ditches around here. I have some peeking through the fence from my neighbours yard which I cut off from time to time as orange is my least favorite color for flowers. I have some lily of the valley which was donated and has spread out considerably and made itself at home, and tulips are always nice until the squirrels dig them up.
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Joni! Your garden is lovely and your hydrangeas and morning glory flowers are glorious. You definitely have a green thumb 🙂
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It is not looking too glorious right now as we are in the midst of a horrible heat wave. Most of those pictures were from previous years. I did very little gardening this year due to the reno and the uncooperative weather earlier in May/June, so things are looking rather pathetic right now, but as I don’t go out much I don’t see it! Unpacking dishes tomorrow, so it’s good I have lots of stuff to do inside. You are lucky you have a pool!
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Gorgeous garden! and great pictures!
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Though it’s a cliche, I find your lovely post a breath of fresh air. It’s such a welcome diversion from the news these days.
And I’m with you in loving blue flowers—though I do have vivid memories of a trip to Provence years ago where fields of lavender stretched as far as the eye could see.
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Thank you Annie. My blog does tend to concentrate on beauty and fluffy stuff, I suppose I find writing about such topics a diversion from all the bad things that goes on in the world! But I do enjoy reading blogs that are more issue related and promote dialogue and discussion. I am still mulling over your recent blog on The Lights of Liberty/We are better than this……and hesitated to comment there as I am Canadian and it is not my country. In the past when I have commented on US politics/issues, (which I do follow, although I do not get CNN my mother does, and we always get the highlights on our evening Canadian news), it got unpleasant. I can’t remember exactly what the discussion was about, something Trump related, but someone took issue with my comment about his bad behaviour (you won’t find many Canadians here who like Trump), and he/she started criticizing Trudeau our prime minister, who is nothing to brag about either, although more polite, and the discussion got unpleasant. I did not vote for Trudeau, he is young and inexperienced and has bungled a lot of things in our country and I suspect he will not be re-elected in the fall. It seems people vote for politicians these days who have brand names instead of substance. I guess I felt as a Canadian I had no write to comment on your post, although I did read it with interest. I am worried about the US situation though, as I have never seen the country so divided.
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I certainly understand your reluctance to comment due to previous unpleasantness, but I ‘m quite sure that won’t happen on mine. I have heard from a few Canadians and an English woman, and I haven’t seen any negative responses.
I started out being far less overtly partisan, and I’m always seeking common ground—trying to see the other person’s perspective and where we might agree. It is an increasingly challenging task.
But I continue—with hope and naïveté—and some tranquility from your lovely garden!
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Well perhaps I shall venture forth an opinion some day…..It is hard to see the other sides perspective when it is so blatantly wrong!
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I’ve not seen our country so divided, either. Do we need another Apollo Mission to bring us back together? Must we face another 9/11 event? We need a president who is a leader, a true leader. I can name names, regrets that so-and-so wasn’t elected, not even close, but what’s the point? Staunch American that I am, I am sorely disappointed in the miasma “The Trumpet” has gotten us into. And I am utterly amazed that he still has a base of believers and supporters!
Joni, as our next-door neighbor, you do have the right to say your piece, and I have the privilege of listening. I like hearing what other people think. We all comprise a world community, just as the Church is a community or family; what happens in one nation does affect the other nations. As the Apostle Paul wrote in one of his epistles, when one member hurts, the whole community hurts.
(And that leads into other areas I don’t want to get into right now. I’m still sleepy after my afternoon nap!)
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The Trumpet! HA! I have never heard that expression, but it is so applicable, as he’s always blowing his own horn. It is hard to believe that he has so many supporters, but does he really, as would many of those people who voted him in, vote again? I guess time will tell. I had an afternoon nap too, I finally finished putting all the dishes back in the cupboards, and was waiting for the painter to show up, he didn’t again, there’s always some excuse. He’s doing touchups, so no rush this time, but it’s so annoying.
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PS. I have never been to Provence and would love to see the lavender fields as I have quite a bit of lavender in my garden and lavender is one of my favorite things! Which reminds me, the heat here has dried it out so much, I need to harvest it.
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Such a lavender field exists near us in Central Washington! For me, it’s like standing in the middle of a lavender Provence. Hubby and I were out there just last Saturday. One of these days, I want to write about it — called Selah Ridge Lavender Farm — but right now Adele, the grower, and her husband are in the midst of their summer harvest. I purchase many of my essential oils/lotions/creams, as well as plants from her, and we’ve become casual friends over the years. When things settle down, I want to interview her for a story.
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Oh that would be so lovely, please do! I would love to read about that. I tried making lavender oil one year, with disastrous results….it was a lot of work for basically a teaspoons worth which eventually smelled off. I had better luck making my own lavender spray There used to be a lavender farmer at some of the summer outdoor craft shows and I loved his products, but they went out of business.
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Gorgeous flowers! My favorite is my bluehydrangea.
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Beautiful garden you have! Mine also has to thrive on neglect. Purple seems to be my dominant color. We had some stunning iris that refused to bloom, so out they went. Put some lupine in their place, which bloomed but did not grow very tall. Maybe next year. Bachelor buttons might be a nice blue, reseeding annual for you.
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Thank you Eilene. I will check into Bachelor Buttons – I like things that reseed!
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These are beautiful flowers that you have Joni and I think your garden is going strong despite this horrible heat and humidity we have. I love this line: “All future flowers must show their true colors before they are purchased!” I have had that happen, not only with perennials, but a flat of annuals where growers were not paying attention and mislabeled them … if a yellow impatiens showed its face in a basket or planter where I only wanted pinks and lavenders, I’d be mad too, and sometimes yanked it because the entire backyard was in the pink/purple scheme, but even when you buy annuals, especially a flat, they are not always blooming or in bud. Sigh.
My neighbor next door is a scream because every year she buys hanging baskets for her front hard – four of them – two to hang from her awning over the front porch and two for the double shepherd hook out front, plus she has a wrought-iron black planter where she gets a similarly colored pot pre-planted with annuals. Usually the flowers are “toast” by 4th of July – this year they didn’t even make it to the end of June. I want to say to her that even if you have torrential rain every few days, on the hot and dry days, the water is long gone and you really need to water them. But, there they are, right where she put them after Memorial Day, just clumps of dead flowers – very attractive – they will stay there until she decorates for Halloween – I don’t get that as I see dead flowers in baskets or pots all the time. When I gave up on planting annuals and planted silk flowers instead I was happy that they could look the same on Memorial Day as they did on Labor Day. No worrying about excessive rain and moving them under the patio which is what I used to do to all my pots and baskets if torrential rain was expcted and, if it was excessive wind that day, I did the same thing lest they blow off the hook and onto the ground and be ruined … one day I said to myself “why do you bother having plants – they spend more time being protected than actually out to enjoy them?” Then I started walking in 2011 and that was the end of any annuals beginning in 2012. I need to refresh my silk flowers as they are now faded, but I got them at Michael’s to begin with so they wee quite realistic looking up until last year with the intense sun.
I planted some Twist and Shout Hydrangeas a few years ago and they did not bite the dust in the last Polar Vortex and its extreme cold and wind. They turn the color pink or blue depending on the acidity of the soil. I’ve not even fertilized them and they return year after year, just like the Forget-Me-Nots which I tossed out a few packets of seeds casually as “fillers” for the gaps between bushes and they have returned in full force year after year with no maintenance (in fact I had to yank them as they transplanted themselves over by the A/C and were growing toward the A/C grille.). I only used seeds one other time and that was to grow sunflowers one year.
Thanks for the link to my blog Joni and yes, those cobalt cats were really unique – I need to pay another visit there to check on the progress of the butterfly garden. I followed the garden club at the high school, that planted those milkweed plants and tend to the gardens on Facebook but they have not made any posts since the day they planted the milkweed in the Spring. We have loads of milkweed at Council Point Park and it very health so hopefully I’ll see some butterflies buzzing about.
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Those pictures were from a few weeks ago, before the really hot spell, except for the hydrangeas, so the garden is looking a bit pathetic at the moment, but the rain might have perked things up. I used to do what your neighbour is guilty of – buy a whole bunch of hanging baskets and forget to water them. This year I bought one basket of geraniums and one tropical thing I forget the name of, and a small pot of inpatients, and that’s it. I didn’t want to waste the money and knew I wouldn’t have much time with the kitchen reno., and it is a freeing feeling, knowing you don’t have to look after all that stuff. That’s a great idea with the silk flowers, I have a whole bunch in the basement that I was going to put in a garage sale, (from Michaels too) which I could put in my urns out front, which are empty at the moment. I am thinking of having a mini-garage sale with some of the kitchen stuff I didn’t put back, if my neighbour wants to do one too, or I could just set stuff aside til next spring when they have the town wide one. Waiting for the painter to show up again, to finish touchups…..he is just plain annoying. If he isn’t coming to come, why doesn’t he call!
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I feel for you Joni with all these contractors in and out of the house – yesterday I noticed that one side of the garage door is not flush with the vinyl seal that they put in around the door – did I not notice it before? I don’t believe that and think it happened. The more I think of it I wish I had now gotten the electric door opener and just put the battery tender on, then opened the garage door – I feel I am afraid of the door as it does not seem to open the same way each time – some times it opens easier than other times … maybe it is just me. The silk flowers now need to be replaced but I took the mesh bags that you get from oranges or grapefruit and I put river rock in them and then tied pipe cleaners to the mesh bags and then wrapped it around the base of the flowers. I bought enough flowers so there were no gaps or used greening to fill in any empty spaces. I did not want anything blowing away so weighting them worked very well … you can sometimes even buy bags of rocks already in the mesh bags – even easier. As long as you keep them from tipping over by stuffing the pot sufficiently, there are no worries about them flying away in a windstorm either. No watering, deadheading, nothing. I’ll bet you did not leave the pots out there all Summer though.
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Maybe they didn’t get a good seal with the door? You should have them back soon as they can’t then say it happened later or the heat warped it or some such excuse! That’s a good idea re the river rock in mesh bags, I will check through the flowers in the basement to see if there is anything summer-like. No, I pitched my dead pots out when they were beyond CPR – no need to have reminders of money wasted!
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They look terrible out there – every year, for years now, the same thing. I never thought of the heat – I’m going to take a picture tomorrow morning and send it to them and ask them to come Wednesday – it is four weeks tomorrow … I really didn’t want to deal with anyone else this year until Jim does the gutters in the Fall and that is around our Thanksgiving. He didn’t do the cement cracks so don’t know whether to contact him to do it now as it may be too cold – the trees in the yards behind me are slow to drop their leaves. I also have looked at the siding and brick – going to be honest with you Joni – he said to give it a couple of weeks and I’d notice a difference. It is three weeks since he did it, we’ve had rain and I don’t see a difference in the siding or the bricks. I trust Jim and commend him on his honesty, but between not seeing a difference and his forgetting the cement, I am not pleased – if it was that hot, he should have waited until a cooler day to do the work.
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That is frustrating, esp. when you’ve spent all that money. I called to schedule my siding/deck/mildew cleaning last week and they told me it would be 2 or 3 weeks, summer will be almost over by then! I’m unclear as to why you wouldn’t notice a difference right away? I think my crew just pressure washes the deck and hand washes the siding with something….
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We had storms last night and I lost my internet earlier today – frustrated about everything. I sent pictures and the owner came out … he said it was off the track and “this door is not made for manual operation so you know” … well, then when I said I didn’t want an electric door operation, then you should have sold me a different model or told me that then and I would have gotten it … it is fixed and hope it lasts longer than four weeks. I asked on their Facebook page where I sent the query in a private message to tell me if they can retrofit after this installation and how much. I don’t see a difference – maybe all the heat baked it in –
we had several torrential rains though? Yes, Summer will be over – are they going to do the mildew removal too?
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Yes, but will it stay fixed on the track? That’s crazy, he should have explained it at the beginning, what the best options were. We had a nice rain last night, so I didn’t have to water today which was good. Today was beautiful again 74, I wish it would stay like that, but it won’t. I hope they do my mildewed siding soon, as it is certainly an eyesore, but I suspect they are far behind, as he told me 2-3 weeks last week when I called, and now next week is rain again off and on all week, and then we are into August, a month I always find depressing.
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That’s what I thought and he kind of smiled and was off – yes, your kid (who sold and installed it) should have been more forthcoming. I said thanks and he asked if I could write a review on Google reviews or Yelp. I have to figure out Google reviews and I don’t remember my password and it was likely on the computer that had the issue – no time to go get on it … maybe if he had been nicer, but worked late last night – we are suddenly swamped and my boss has a new project … an harassment issue on one of the tugboats … we’ve had that before and he goes and interviews all the crew members and creates many dictation tapes that have to be transcribed, nearing month end and invoices … yesterday morning before we got the last assignment with the harassment, I said “thank goodness it is nice weather as I need to get out and away from this house and its problems – I did not really do housework last weekend as we had storm chances all day long both days – didn’t want to do laundry as I’ve had a power outage (not during a storm) and had wet clothes while awaiting the power to come on. Half the time the A/C was off as it was rumblinhg outside – just gave up on the housework for the most part. I have to get out this weekend though and just relax a little –
all the house issues, etc. and extra work load have gotten to me. I am behind in Reader again and have loads of pics to make a post and feel badly if I can’t keep up …. it is a Catch-22 sometimes. I am enjoying this nice weather … been walking 5 miles daily. This morning a shorter walk as need to go for my allergy shot and pay the taxes/water bill and deposit checks in the bank. I’d walk there to do those things, but they say there are muggings along that route, day and night.
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I wouldn’t be walking anywhere there were muggings! Another beautiful day, I hope to enjoy this one and spend some time reading on the swing which I have not done ONCE this summer. I intended to yesterday, but got tied up with errands and stuff. I would like to nap on the swing, but someone started cutting down a tree at 8am and it’s hard to nap when the chain saw goes every 5 minutes. You need a weekend off! Forget the housework.
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It was beautiful this morning – we really have missed out on ordinary Summer days, just like I said in my last post. I had some errands and since I didn’t feel it was safe to walk, I did drive to the Park, then walked three miles and then did errands. Yesterday we got a big work project in – this is a client who always wants immediate results and my boss cow tows to him because he is a friend and also he owns tugboats and freighters and my boss takes a “cruise” every Summer with a friend of his. Been doing that for years. So, this is not the first time there has been issues with male sailors to women sailors – so a phonecall yesterday about going to interview all the crew and the complainant. This is the third or fourth time we’ve had this issue and it involves interviewing all the crew, and taping their testimony and I have to type all the testimony, then he pulls together an investigative report – quite honestly, he drags the project out to the max – a normal person would go to the interviews, wouldn’t take notes as he is recording (and he tells them he is recording with a dictaphone) and then they listen to the recording and make the report by that – but no, my boss stretches out the the project to make more money and more work for me. Yesterday morning, when I checked in I said this and had no idea of this project which we got yesterday afternoon: “It is so nice and cool – I’m enjoying walking and I’m really looking forward to this weekend as I’ve put off taking any trips to big parks for six or more weeks due to the weather, finger, garage door – it was horribly hot on the 4th of July.” So today he e-mails me and says “I’ll be doing interviews on the tugboat when it docks in Detroit on Friday and I’ll bring the tapes over Saturday morning and if you’re willing you can work all weekend – I will pay you for doing this.” I read it and said to myself “of course I told myself this would happen” but I e-mailed back and said “actually I want and need to get away from here, the whining dog next door, the barking dog on the corner, the incessant problems in the house, and I have been looking forward to it as soon as I heard the weather would be nice. You were at the cabin last weekend, but I told you how hot it was – I walked at the grocery store on Saturday, but Sunday they had no power and it was way too hot to go out and enjoy myself – besides the entire weekend was ripe for thunderstorms. If I have to stay late next week, I’ll do that, and if absolutely necessary, maybe after 8:00 on Sunday, but the days are for me – I’m not even doing any housework, not that the house doesn’t need it – I need a break.” I expected a petulant whiny phonecall, but instead he called and said he understood and he would try to do it himself. Sigh. I took a stand – I hope they are right about the nice weather and now, since I put out there I would work later during the weekdays next week, we are having stormy weather. I am so frustrated by everything. I have a ton of pics to use in posts and ideas, but feel badly as I’m behind in Reader – got caught up over the weekend, but then stayed til 6:00 most evenings as we’ve been so busy, and we had a storm and I shut down one night and the other times, I was trying to catch up on comments. I am hoping the weather is good as I need to get away from everything. I agree with you.
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