This is the time of year when avid gardeners everywhere are collecting their catalogs, perusing them for next year's plantings. It's a good time to ask yourself if you're making the best use of color in your garden designs. Blue flowers have many virtues, not the least of which is the ability to create optical illusions.
If yellow shades are your favorites, do your flower beds stand out in interesting contrasts, or do you have a monotonous and overdone yellow theme? If so, think about introducing some variety and contrast in your colors. Imagine that bed of yellow marigolds planted with some deep blue flowers, such as the 'Crystal Palace' lobelia, as a ground cover at the front. These complementary shades make a dramatic contrast, with the vibrant, sturdy yellow marigolds perfectly offset by the delicate, but dramatic, deep blue of the lobelia. A bright yellow is undeniably cheerful, but combined with blue flowers, you've got drama and cheer!
Nature provides flowers in just about every color of the rainbow. There are even chocolate brown, lime green and black flowers, as a result of hybridizing. Such diversity of flower colors offers you an artist's palette of choices with which to decorate your landscape. As you plan your flower gardens for next spring, pretend you have a brush with which to spread color around your garden.
Blue flowers create a sense of distance. If your garden is small, a bed of perennial blue phlox, planted along the street side of your property, makes your garden appear larger when viewed from inside your home. Blue flowers visually recede. If you've got brilliant pink climbing roses planted along the porch, with pale blue flowers, such as phlox, at the front gate, you've got two focal points, equally charming.
Blue flowers are useful year around. A planting of blue crocus against a backdrop of bright yellow daffodils, makes a charming winter-spring display. Spring blooming blue iris makes a stunning display amidst the brilliant yellow, early spring forsythia. Look through your catalogs for bulbs, annuals and perennials to fill out your color palette in each season.
If you have a cutting garden, be sure to include some blues for your flower arrangements. Blue flowers, in several shades, provide just that perfect bit of contrast to your arrangements. Pale blues, whites and magenta shades are charming. Deep blue shades, combined with a majority of brilliant yellows, orange and rusty colors are sensational.
The color blue has a calming effect on the eyes, so keep this in mind when designing plantings in relaxation spots, such as a patio, gazebo or your favorite garden reading spot.
Planters and hanging baskets give an airy feel to the hot days of summer, providing a cool tone with just a sprinkling of blue in a trailing basket of more assertive colors.
As you look through your catalogs, dreaming garden dreams, while sipping a cup of tea, think blue as an essential for those hot summer days.
Summary:
Blue flowers provide so many different things to the garden area. They tend to recede when placed with other colors and provide a wonderful backdrop hue. Blue flowers help your yard appear larger to the eye. Blue is also a very calming color and is perfect for patios or other areas meant for relaxation.
