Blue flowers blooming now

Anchusa and lobelia volunteers.

Hyacinthoides hispanica

Good pics, JD. I love Lobelia. It doesn't come back here or reseed. I remember buying one and only one six-pack of Lobelia when I moved to the East Bay and having a garden full of Lobelia forever after. Our winters in Sonoma County are a touch too cold for that, though, so I have to buy new Lobelia every year. I just bought six six-packs this weekend. It looks so good in containers with other stuff.

Love lobelia! It does come back for me and it's always so fun to see where it reseeds itself too. I still buy several 6 pks every year of all the varieties as it's perfect to tuck in everywhere. It really sets off that lavender rose nicely Mike!

Thanks, Sue, but that was entirely natures design, not mine. LOL

There's actually a Pandora's Box DL just now emerging from under that clump of Lobelia. Around the beginning of August here, Lobelia are pretty much toast, but they bloom all fall, winter.and spring, so I just let them do their thing.

These pansies are, unbelievably, ones that survived from last year.
Can you tell I didn't put Sluggo in this area ?

Ah, one of those happy accidents. Love it when plant combos really work!

Sluggo, shoot, gotta add that to my list of things to pick up tomorrow, I ran out and a lot of my pansies and violas show it! The damage that makes me the maddest are my large clumps of aeoniums.

Your pictures are anything but bad, JD. I just love your garden.

Your hyacinthoides get so much larger there than ours do.

You California people have a lot of beautiful blue flowers. I don't think we have as many available for our zone.

JD gets lobelias seeding freely but we get them cooked by the end of June and have to buy new ones, like Zuzu, each year.

Great photos, JD! Love the photo with the bench.

I've given up purchasing lobelia, as they are so short lived here. Such a beautiful blue, though, I might have to give in again this year.

Glad you like the Hyacinthoides. What I find interesting is that they do equally as well in full sun or in shade. They also multiply like crazy.

A few years ago I ordered the pink and white ones from Van Engelen. For whatever reason, they do nothing for me. They get about three inches tall and the blooms have two miniscule blossoms. Major disappointment.

Polly: I would trade lobelia for your JI's in a heartbeat !
Pirl: Ditto for your JI's and clematis.

Polly: Can you grow Meconops where you are ?

I've never tried meconopsis, but supposedly it can grow here. That is a beautiful blue. I really should try it.

The pink and white hyacinthoides do nothng for me either. they don't bloom well, and I really don't care for them.

Well I am just going to have to get me that Scilla Peruviana, saw it yesterday when I toured a public garden and it's stunning up close! I sat right down on the dirt path to take several pictures.

Just the prettiest little blooms!

And I loved this combo, blue flax with Layia platyglossa, always did like blues blooms with yellow.

Yes, Sue, you definitely should get the Scilla. It's so easy to grow. You just put it in the ground or in a pot and forget about it. I have one growing in a pot in a corner of my garden I never seem to get to when I'm doing my usual watering or cleanup chores, but it just doesn't care. It comes back reliably every spring anyway. Another plus for me is that it apparently doesn't appeal to gophers.

That Scilla Peruviana certainly is a beauty, Sue. Flowers with more than one color in them always hold the greatest appeal for me.

Perennial Salvia 'May Night' blue flower stalk.

Well if they are easy Zuzu, they are now on my wish list! They sound tough like those Spanish Bluebells JD posted, I have those all over my yard and they are always a nice surprise when they pop up as I never do anything to them except pull the dead leaves when they are done for the season. Here's one I saw in the garden I toured on Wed.

A new blue in my garden, Echium gentianoides

Close up of the blooms

I picked up this one at Lowes' the end of summer last year and it has bloomed off and on since. It's in a partially sunny window and I'm afraid to move it......

Sue, the closeup of the Echium is so pretty. I've never grown an Echium because I've always thought they turn into huge monster plants. Am I wrong?

RaggedyAnn, that's a really lovely plant. What is it? I can't make out the fine print under "Blue Daze."

I posted so many of my blue flowers earlier that I have almost nothing left to post for now, but here are some Delft Blue Dutch irises that came into bloom recently:

And here's my baby Rhododendron 'California Blue.' Some day this will be huge!

Zuzu - that iris is absolutely stunning.

Love the name and the bloom on the very pretty rhododendron.

If Sue bought one it would be California Sue's California Blue.

Love that rhododendron!

It's Evolvulus 'Blue Daze'

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/194/

I bought a 6 pk of those evolvulus and planted most of them on the edges of several beds and they are spreading their little stems and making a beautiful ground cover, no problems with it through the winter too, great looking plants. Now I look forward to the blooms. One of them I planted in a large pot with my pomegranate and it's filled the entire base of the pot around the bush and is now spilling over the sides, perfect!!

Zuzu, so glad to see you back here posting again, I have been meaning to ask how the rest of your visit with Kassia went, probably an exhausting whirl wind tour of nurseries I would imagine. We had perfect weather for the SF day and the showers let up for us just in time for the Heritage Rose Garden visit. Kassia is the perfect guest!
This Echium gentianoides is smaller than those gigantic ones, if it gets too big for the spot I planted it, I can clip any side branches to keep it in check, height is no problem in it's current spot. Got it at Annies.
http://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/plant_display.asp?prodid=378
And here is the PF, I took a full size picture of it at Annie's and that plant was what prompted me to try it. It was maybe 4 ft tall.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/215651/

It definitely was a whirlwind shopping tour, Sue. You would love my driveway!

Here's an iris that's more blue than most of the others in my garden, especially the nice navy-blue buds.

Did Kassia have a lot to bring home too? She said her goal were succulents this trip.

Yes, she bought lots and lots of succulents, a few tiny azaleas and rhodies (Sonoma Hort 4-inch pots), two or three of the Vintage gallon roses from GVR, and a few other things. The succulents came from everywhere -- Peacock, Lone Pine, Cottage Gardens, Bassignani, etc., etc., etc. She packed them separately in Zip-Loc bags so that the airline people could see them without unwrapping them, and they all actually fit into that huge purse she was carrying. She called when she arrived in Boston to let me know the flight had been uneventful and fairly relaxing. We went everywhere but Annie's and Emerisa. Easter cut into our schedule. We didn't realize so many places would be closed that day.

ahhh, I know she really wanted to go to Annie's too but the SF day ended up just being too full to make it over there before closing and Annie's just can't be done in less than 2 hours.

And I love that blue iris!

Clematis Multi-Blue:

I am going to plant a hundred of these Brodiaea next year>

They are lovely! I really am looking to add more of these more unusual bulbs too for next year, lots of blues but also especially some of the South African ones. Kell posted some I had never heard of, lachenalia.
http://images.google.com/images?q=lachenalia&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=q-LpSfTuJ5zyswOh__jwAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

Off the blue topic, I came across this pretty photo blog on alpines you might enjoy. http://www.srgc.org.uk/wisley/2007/201207/log.html

Sue,

I would have to grow alpines in my refrigerator, under grow lights, for them to survive.

So you like SAfrican bulbs - then you should order seed from http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/ByCategory.asp they have excellent choice - things you will never see available anywhere else. They offer more than 50 Lachenalia. I have been ordering from them for years and have always been happy with my purchase.

The nice thing about living in NorCal is that all the SAfrican bulbs can be grown in pots and all you have to do is water them during the winter (a little fertilizer helps too).

Since they are summer dormant you can just stack up the pots in an out-of-the-way place and restart them in Oct/Nov, in the same pot.

When I worked at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont we had a species freesia that had been growing in the crack of a retaining wall for years. It reseeded itself all over the area below the wall - and what a sweet scent it had.

Thanks, Sue. I loved the Alpine link.

Window box w/Browalia>