Dear Miss Floribunda,
I moved to this area from the Pacific Northwest (Washington) three years ago. I have tried but failed to grow my favorite flowers for two of those years. Because I adore the color blue, I’ve always made delphiniums, lupines, forget-me-nots and Himalayan poppies the mainstays of my flower beds. What contrasting colors I added were to make the blues pop. I haven’t been able to maintain these varieties beyond midsummer in my Hyattsville garden even though I did keep up with watering when there was no rain. Do you or your friends know of any tricks to keep these plants alive and blooming?
Feeling Blue Without Blue on Buchanan Street
Dear Feeling Blue,
I’m afraid your best bet is to look for other blue flowers than those native to your former home. All the flowers you have tried to grow here prefer cool summers with soil that is consistently moist but not soggy. Here we have blistering hot summers with torrential rain storms alternating with drought.
Fortunately, there are lovely blue flowers that thrive in our microclimate. I am not going to recommend larkspur because the “blue” variety is really purple and not the seraphic azure of the Pacific Giant delphinium I suspect you have been trying to grow. However, thanks to our acid soil, Hyattsville hydrangeas usually bloom in many thrilling blue tonalities — ranging from the deep sapphire of stained glass to a diaphanous powder blue. Blue-flowering plumbago and bugloss make wonderful groundcovers. These plants like semi-shade, but for sunnier spots, you could showcase borage, morning glories, bottle gentian and cornflowers.
When I checked with my experts, Aunt Sioux confirmed that hydrangeas, as well as the sun-loving flowers mentioned, are good choices for blue bloom in summer. However, she suggested that if you want blue flowers in spring, you might add Siberian iris (Iris sibirica), as well as such bearded iris (Iris germanica) as ‘Caribbean Dream,’ ‘Victoria Falls,’ ‘Babbling Brook,’ ‘City Lights’ and ‘Forever Blue.’
Dr. Greengenes joined Aunt Sioux in recommending our native blue flag iris (Iris virginica). Dr. Greengenes is also a fan of Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) as an ethereal backdrop for late-flowering bulbs.
Wendy Wildflower recommended a number of true-blue-flowering small bulbs, such as squills (Scilla), spring starflowers (Ipheion), glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) and certain grape hyacinths — Muscari paradoxum and Muscari aucheri ‘Blue Magic.’ However, she warns that you have to go to the trouble of placing chicken wire over any area you plant them in, because our felonious local squirrels will dig up and appropriate any bulb the size of an acorn.
For other blue flowers in late spring and early summer, Wendy Wildflower grows our native false indigo (Baptisia), woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and bluestar (Amsonia illustris) for their stunning blue bloom all through the spring months.
Of course you can’t go, or grow, wrong with native plants: Aunt Sioux and Wendy Wildflower add to your list such dependable local favorites as the ravishing Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica), with its deep sky blue petals marked with rose pink, as well as fluffy light blue Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans) for spring and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) for late spring and early summer.
Dr. Greengenes recommends the native spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) for early summer and the cobalt blue cardinal flower (Lobelia siphilitica) for later in summer. The pale blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) blooms in fall.
Beautiful blue-flowering shrubs you might grow are Ceanothus and Vitex, with the warning that, with time, they can become small trees. Certain viburnums and other shrubs have attractive blue berries in fall.
What would help you most is to acquire plants from your gardening neighbors because anything that does well in adjacent gardens will do well in yours. Please come to the next meeting and plant exchange of the Hyattsville Horticultural Society on Saturday, April 19, at the home of Joe Buriel and Dave Roeder, 3909 Longfellow Street. After coffee, nibbles, and a brief meeting at 10 a.m., participants in the plant exchange will present and describe their offerings. Each person will then select a plant after their number is called — sequentially till all plants are gone. As a newbie, you need not bring a plant but may choose plants to take home. You will also meet friendly gardeners who can help you adapt to your new gardening challenges.
