Rhapsody in Blue by Dorothy Dobbie
25 beautiful blue flowers
Note: Parts of this story were also published in the 2013 edition of the Prairie Gardener, now in its 81st
year of publica-
tion. To purchase a copy of this digest- sized annual, contact the Prairie Garden Committee, P.O. Box 517, Winnipeg, MB R3C 2J3,
www.theprairiegarden.ca.
Above: batchelor button. Right: Baby blue eyes and browallia.
ciated with blue. Blue in the garden is as luxurious as purple on a queen. It’s the ultimate colour of blossom desire for everything from petunias to roses, from phlox to daylilies. You’ll find true blue mostly hiding shyly in shady spots where the sky can’t compete.
B Baby blue eyes Think of Nemophila or baby blue eyes
with its five cupped petals and white centre. It’s a woodland plant that can be found growing wild in parts of Canada, and although there are purple species, the blue Nemophila menziesii is a favou- rite in the cultivated garden. Native to North America, it has been collected, hybridized and adopted all over the world for its perfect sky-blue colour. It’s a small, low-rise plant that grows
as an annual and blooms faithfully over several months, dropping its seed in autumn to increase, but it is best in springtime or early summer when it has little competition from taller plants. Nemophila grows less than a foot tall,
Below: Hyacinth and Virginia blue- bells (right).
lue is the colour of my true love’s eyes and true love in the garden is often asso-
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