Over the Garden Fence: Dreaming of garden blue

Struck by wind and plunging temperatures, we might be turning blue. Cold does that. Not to Ohioans. We make a lot of soup, bundle up and pretend everything is normal. Turning blue for me is turning to thoughts of blue − blue plants that is.

Bunches of us are dreaming of a coming season in the garden while Mother Nature throws her weight around. Arriving catalogs manage to take away doldrums. Selecting seeds, plants and perhaps new equipment or tools can bring rays of hope. Knowing more space would be needed for dream seeds and dream plants was an anticipated move. That is why I already confessed to thinning and removing plants last fall.

There are many blue flowering plants filling spaces in our flower beds. Amsonias are all over. Forget-me-nots, anchusa, brunnera and grape hyacinths in the spring, stokesia or Stokes' aster, bachelor buttons, the centaurea called Mountain. Bluet, delphinium, echinops, eringeum (sea holly), flax, blue-eyed grass, gentian, nigella, sages, irises and hydrangea when it makes up its mind to be blue.

True blue, not a shade of lavender

These are considered blue, not a tint or shade of lavender color. You would think this would be enough blue. Last fall bulbs for an allium caeruleum were planted in a clump − a blue bloomer. There are a few more blue perennials on my wish list. Aconitum or Monk's hood is on it. It is a spike-form flower. A favored cultivar is named Stainless Steel. Then there is tweedia or oxypetalum. It grew in a planter for me, a pale blue. This cutie produces miniature pods similar in form to milkweed pods.

Canterbury bells are another beauty which becomes very tall. Gobs of its stalks filled a large vase in a hallway as we toured a castle in France − a real knockout.

There are columbines in blue. Cupid's Dart named Amor Blue is promising with an unusual form. Honestly, the pot of agapanthus needs some encouragement. The bulbs were purchased at the end of the season crammed in a pot. They never got separated.

One very special plant growing in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, struck me. Meconopsis betonicifolia or Himalayan blue poppy was so striking even the photograph did not do it justice. Bluest of blues, a tall and showy poppy jolted the landscape. It is referred to as the Holy Grailof garden blue. Who knew poppies came in blue.

A year ago after paying a fortune for a few seeds they actually sprouted. Those wee young ones were exciting. Under grow lights magic took place. Sadly, they never made it into the flower beds. Moisture, acidic soil and cool summers make this poppy happy. Never fear, my fat notebook loaded with pictures of dream plants has revealed a new source in a seed catalog.

So this cold day of 6 degrees has come to an end with a glimmer of hope. There is another chance to fulfill on one of my blue dreams.

Mary Lee Minor is a member of the Earth, Wind and Flowers Garden Club, an accredited master gardener, a flower show judge for the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs and a former sixth grade teacher.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Flowering plants that bring blue to your garden