Breadcrumb Links
Life Fashion & Beauty
Published on June 14, 2024 • Last updated 19 minutes ago • 3 minute read
To save this article, register for free here, or sign in if you have an account.
Nature provides a dazzling abundance of blue flowers like morning glories. Courtesy of Deborah Meier. Photo by Deborah_Maier/cal
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn affiliate commissions from purchases made through links on this page.
Article Contents
Gardeners love blue flowers. Blue is considered a peaceful and relaxing color. Blue symbolizes the sky, water, and even distant horizons. It's no coincidence that the blue flower was a central symbol of the Romantic movement of the 1800s. It was, and remains, a symbol of desire, love, the infinite, the unreachable, and perhaps even divine longing and aspiration for the unknown. Blue is the soul of the poet in all of us.
Ad 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
This content is available to subscribers only
Subscribe now to read the latest news from your city and across Canada.
With one account, you'll enjoy unlimited online access to articles from across Canada. Exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.
Subscribe to unlock more articles
Subscribe now to read the latest news from your city and across Canada.
With one account, you'll enjoy unlimited online access to articles from across Canada. Exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.
Register/Sign in to view more articles
To continue reading, please create an account or sign in.
Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts in the comments and join the conversation. Enjoy additional articles every month. Receive email updates from your favourite authors.
Sign in or create an account
or
Article Contents
In nature, less than 10 percent of flowers are blue, and the color is even less prevalent in the animal kingdom, so it makes sense that it's a color of desire and aspiration: we're always striving for the most unattainable things.
Blue does not exist in nature as a color or pigment. What we see as blue is a combination of other pigments, minerals, and reflected light. The red pigment anthocyanin is the most common blue pigment mixed in various concentrations, which is why many flowers we call blue appear lavender, lilac, or even bluish red. The physics of light are involved, and the colors we see are the colors that are not absorbed by objects. Plant leaves absorb all colors except green, which is why they are mostly shades of green.
Blue comes in many shades, like these mauve pincushion flowers. Courtesy of Deborah Meyer
This begs the question: why do some flowers have blue? To be different and unique, of course. In the competition for pollinators, plants are willing to sacrifice a little energy for a special pollinator. Maybe that's why we gardeners treasure blue flowers so much: we want to introduce a slightly different, or even dramatically different, color into our gardens.
Midday News Roundup
Thank you for your registration!
Article Contents
Ad 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
Article Contents
So what are some beautiful blue summer flowers you can grow and enjoy in Calgary?
The parade of perennials also includes delphiniums with their dark bees; check out Blue Butterfly and Blue Miller. And of course, gentians are hugely popular; poet William Cullen Bryant wrote that gentians are “tinted with the blue of heaven.” I love gentians so much that I have more than five varieties in my garden, blooming from mid-summer through fall. Consider the climbing plant Blue Bird Clematis or the ground cover periwinkle, named for its particular shade of blue. Morning glories are a gorgeous old-fashioned vine, and who could resist the Heavenly Blue cultivar?
Nature offers many dazzling blue flowers like the delphinium. Courtesy of Deborah Meyer Photo by Deborah Meyer /cal
Additionally, Alberta's wildflowers, blue flax, mountain larkspur, and blue-eyed grass are a delight to the eye as you stroll through the rolling hills, and you'll also find sky-blue chicory wherever it grows.
In our garden, campanulas, perennial salvias (with all the named cultivars to choose from) and my favourite, Fama Scabiosa (Deep Blue) with its airy, pincushion-shaped flowers, and Heaven’s St. Jacob’s Ladder have returned.
Ad 4
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
Article Contents
Himalayan blue poppies are difficult to grow here, but very rewarding. Courtesy of Deborah Meyer Photo by Deborah Meyer/cal
Why not try your luck with the Himalayan blue poppy? This plant requires moist, humus-rich, acidic soil, so if you manage to grow this mountain beauty, it's something to celebrate.
Let's not forget the annual flowers, from the various shades of blue of Lobelia to the delicate Love in a Mist of Miss Jekyll Indigo, a stunning deep blue. Petunias are also mauve blue, as are pansies. The herb Borage, also known as Starflower, has edible flowers that attract bees. The blue flowers of the Cornflower are a long-standing staple in our gardens, but their self-growing habit means that once you plant them in your garden, they will keep coming back, so be careful. Other plants in the Centaurea family are on Alberta's invasive species list.
In late summer, the air fills with the wondrous scents of lavender blossoms, catmint, Russian sage, and steel-blue seahall and prickly globe thistle, rounding out the season and closing out the pageant.
But there are plenty of other beautiful blue flowers that I haven't mentioned. For lovers of blue flowers, it's always fun to find new flowers to plant in your garden. But don't look for blue roses, chrysanthemums, or daisies; if you find them at your local florist or in the cut-flower section of your grocery store, the blue is definitely due to a dye.
Sweet peas have a wonderful color and scent. Courtesy of Deborah Meyer
Article Contents
Share this article on social networks
