Blue Daylilies and April Fools' Day

 

Wiese Acres "Rhapsody" clematis, mature blossoms

I hope all survived April Fool's day.  One of the mail order nursery sites I like to frequent posted a photo of a new introduction "true blue" daylily called "Blue Delusion".  Now, every dedicated daylily enthusiast out there covets a truly blue daylily and thousands of combinations have been hybridized in an attempt to get there, with minimal success.  So "Blue Delusion" caused quite a stir on their website.  I was suspicious when I saw that one of the "parent" plants was Nikko blue hydrangea.  Now, I'm not a hybridizer so I don't know for sure if it is possible to cross pollinate a daylily and a hydrangea, but I am relatively certain that if you could, the end result would not look like a perfectly formed, sky blue daylily flower.  I was quite tickled when they posted a bit later that it was April Fool's but in honor of the day, they were offering 10% off the total cost of any order today.  But, no, they wouldn't be shipping any "Blue Delusion", so I guess I won't get a blue daylily this year, either.

True blue flowers are a little hard to find.  Most have purple tones rather than true blue and are quite lovely, but not that true sky blue which many of us wish to grow.  Often, when I speak to groups about blue flowers, one of the first they will mention is the large leaf hydrangeas that we often see in the garden centers, covered with large balls of a brilliant blue (Endless Summer comes to mind here in the north country).  We take them home and plant them in our gardens and are very disappointed when the new flowers are pink or at the very least a blah, muddy looking blue-gray.  Hydrangeas require acidic soil - a pH of 5.0 to 5.5.  In much of North Dakota, the soil is highly alkaline, with a pH ranging anywhere from 7.5 to 8.5. It is almost impossible to add enough soil acidifier to get the true, brilliant blue hydrangea blooms in our gardens. 


Wiese Acres Blue Delphinium

So, if hydrangeas aren't our best bet for blue flowers, what should we plant?  Delphiniums offer some of the truest blue flowers in the garden.  They send up tall, striking spires covered with true blue petals.  They can grow to six feet tall, so they need to be staked to stay upright, especially in windy locations.  They are hardy in zones 3 to 7, so they prefer cold temperatures to very warm temps and while they like lots of bright sun, they will also tolerate light shade.

Brunnera "Jack Frost"

For a shadier, moister location, brunnera is a good choice.  Brunerra offers light blue flowers in early spring.  The heart shaped leaves are attractive all year long, and a variegated leaved variety, "Jack Frost", provides a lovely, light effect in the darker shade gardens.  It grows in a nice compact form, approximately 18 to 24 inches tall and across.  Brunnera are also hardy in zones 3 to 7.


Blue star (amsonia) and columbines are a great texture combination and both have varieties that bloom in a clear, true blue.  Amsonia has blade like foliage that is a lovely, bright green in spring and summer and turns a striking shade of Autumn yellow by mid-September.  The clusters of blue flowers appear in spring.  Amsonia is tough, deer and rabbit resistant, and doesn't mind heat or drought.  It can't get much better than that in North Dakota.  It is hardy in zones 3 to 9, so can be grown just about anywhere.  It's a well-behaved perennial, staying mostly where you plant it, in a clump about 2 feet tall and wide. 

Columbines, or aquilegia, are another easy to grow,  short-lived perennial that blooms in spring and comes in virtually all colors.  There are varieties that bloom in striking blue or blue and white combinations.  They prefer well-drained soil in part shade from zones 3 to 9.  They like to be kept evenly moist, but not soggy.  They have cute little shamrock shaped leaves so add a nice textural element to the garden.  One downside of columbines is their tendency to provide a home for leaf miners.  The leaf miners don't hurt the plant but they leave white "doodles" throughout the leaves, which is sometimes seen as unsightly.

Some varieties of salvia and morning glories also bloom in a true blue, but many of the other plants that tout "blue" flowers, such as perennial geraniums, campanula and platycodon (Balloon flowers) have a definite violet hue. 

I have found one "blue" clematis, that is a true blue when the blossom first opens, but as the blossom ages, the blue becomes more of a violet.  Regardless of the fact that it loses some of its attractiveness with age, Clematis "Rhapsody" is still a must in my garden.

So, if we want the cool, refreshing hues of blue in our gardens, we do have these and many more options.  But, as of yet, we don't have a true blue daylily.