Late summer border blues need some perspective.
Here it is, midsummer, and the perennial border is still going strong.
Blue and yellow seem to predominate. Blue flowers create a sense of calm and peace. A completely blue summer border is attractive; but from a design perspective, it’s important to include a few plants with silver foliage or soft white or yellow blooms.
Otherwise, the blues may “disappear” into a seemingly black hole. Here are a few suggestions of oldfashioned blue flowers, some of which have the added advantage of drought-tolerance.
Anyone who has read the “Brother Cadfael” mystery series about the Benedictine monk and herbalist, by Ellis Peters, will be familiar with Monkshood (Aconitum napellus). All plant parts are poisonous. It is very long-lived, extremely sturdy (no staking required), and grows three to four feet tall. With finely divided dark green foliage, it’s available in blue, a bicolour white and purple as well as pale yellow and white. Plants can be placed in full sun or partial shade and perform well given even moisture in a well-drained soil, with generous amounts of organic matter added.
Balloon flowers (Platycodon grandiflorum) are a lot tougher than they look. Mine have adapted to semishade with no supplemental water. The common name is from the flower bud that swells up like a balloon prior to opening. Available in both blue and white, they are about 18 inches tall with broadly bell-shaped flowers.
The solitary clematis (Clematis integrifolia) is not a vine but an herbaceous perennial, about two feet tall and wide, with an extended bloom period from May to September. Plant it in full sun to partial shade in fertile, moisture-retentive soil with good drainage. The urnshaped, blue flowers have four petals. Its only downside is that it tends to sprawl by mid-summer and is more attractive if given the benefit of a peony hoop.
Many of the hostas (Hosta spp.) we grow primarily for their foliage also have very attractive blue flowers that come into their own by late summer.among the cultivars with blue leaves are: ‘Halcyon’, ‘Love Pat’, ‘Blue Mouse Ears’, ‘Frosted Dimples’, and ‘Neptune’.