Backyard Nature Wednesday: Garden blues

Blue is not a common color in my garden. The garden's palette bends more to the red/orange/yellow spectrum. It just gives added importance to the blues that the garden does have.

Blues like Evolvulus Blue Daze, now in bloom.

The plant is an evergreen subshrub that grows in a low spreading mound not more than one foot tall and at this time of year the mound is covered in these dainty flowers.

One of my most reliable blue bloomers is the blue plumbago that continues its flowering throughout the hottest, driest days of summer and into fall. In fact, in this time of mild winters, my plants have not been out of bloom since last spring.

At this time of year, of course, there are a few bluebonnets gracing my Texas garden.

It is, after all, our state flower. This lupine, along with paintbrush, coreopsis, and other native plants make our roadsides look like colorful patchwork quilts in spring. (Thank you, Lady Bird Johnson.)

Salvias (sages) are a proven source of blue that leans toward purple, like this 'Mystic Spires' salvia.

This salvia even has blue in its name. It is 'Black and Blue,' another very dependable source of blue in the garden palette. 

Of course, most dependable of all is the bottle tree. Always blue, always in bloom.