Creating a Cool Blue Perennial Flower Garden
For a cooling respite from the heat of the summer, try planting a blue perennial garden in a sunny bed. You will feel very creative when it’s completed.
Various shades of blue plants and flowers in a variety of shapes and textures make a very stunning and interesting statement in any garden.
Imagine a nice rock or brick bordered planting area in the front of your house. I like to see an irregular or curvy shape to the bed, as opposed to straight lines.
For the plants, let’s start with a few “Blue Chips Campanula” at left front. Behind those, a “Blue Sea Holly”. Up in the left back corner, a “Russian Sage”. Right of the holly, put a “Wonder of Staffa Aster”, and around those plants three or four “Select Blue Festuca”. For accent, next, working to the right, a nice white “Coneflower”. Then a few “Belladona Delphinium”, another white “Coneflower, and if space allows, a purple “Buddelia”. Buddelia is also called “butterfly bush” as it attracts butterflys and humming birds. There’s one called “three in one” that has lavender, magenta and white all on one bush. A very striking plant. They carry these plants at SpringHill Nursery. Just click on the butterfly.
The beauty of this perennial garden is it will come back year after year. You’ll have to trim back at the end of the season, depending on where you live. I usually try to wait until all danger of frost is over, but sometimes it’s hard when you want to tidy up the garden.
If you’d like to see plants during the winter, try mixing in some evergreen shrubs if you have room. They look good in the background near the foudation.
Some examples of nice evergreen shrubs are: Buxes, Glossy Abelia, Eunomus, Ilex, Pieris Japonica, Muhgo Pine, and Viburnum. There are many varieties and sizes of these shrubs and they have different needs for care. Do your research on the ones that interest you and make sure the variety you choose will be appropriate for your yard. My favorite book for researching plants is:
If you live in the Midwest or East, Sunset has books for these areas as well.
