To continue with our theme of color in the garden, this
month we are focusing on the blues. Our guide is Penelope Hobhouse, and her
book, Color in Your Garden, is providing ideas and inspiration. In the process,
we're developing a palette of plants to add blue to our gardens here in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Blue is a cool and restful color, with a short wavelength that forces the eye to refocus from its normal focal length (which favors yellows, greens, and whites). Distant colors in the landscape tend to fade, due to light
rays scattering in the atmosphere. Dark blues and violets seem to blur and blend, and appear to recede into the distance. The gallery includes native plants, Mediterranean plants,
and some that can thrive in a Bay Area microclimate.
Spring
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| Wisteria |
|
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| Tulips |
|
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| Bluebells |
|
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| Iris |
|
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| Ceanothus (lilac) |
|
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| Ceanothus (dark blue) |
|
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| Lupine |
|
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| Unidentified |
|
The blues include shades of blue, violet, and purple (there
are few truly blue flowers). Blues can be pale and luminous, or dark and
glowing. They can appear cool when pure or greenish, or warm when reddish. Some
blues are bright and intense, blues in the distance may appear dull and muted. The blues herald Spring in my yard, with Muscari and Bluebells in mass, but they can be found throughout the Bay Area in all seasons.
Summer
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| Delphiniums |
|
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| Lithodora |
|
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| Hydrangea (acidic soil) |
|
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| Agapanthus |
|
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| Echium (starting to bloom) |
|
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| Plumbago |
|
Gray may make light blues luminous, and blues may appear to
glow at twilight. Carpets of blue can also be luminous (remember the blue
forget-me-nots from Filoli in Spring). Blue flowers can be intensified with
white, or with contrasting colors, such orange or yellow.
Fall and Winter
Foliage and grasses can also be bluish, especially
succulents and Mediterranean plants that are water wise. Trees like Deodar
Cedar and Sitka Spruce have needles that are blue (but few of us have big
enough yards to support their grand size)!
Foliage
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