Some beautiful blues

The most depressing day of the year? Blue Monday, usually the third monday in January, and this is when, supposedly, we are at our least happy, the Christmas sparkle has gone, when pay day feels an age away, you may have lapsed a bit on your super strict new years resolutions, the days are still short and spring and summer still feel a long way away. Whether its a real phenomenon or not I want to turn it on its head. Its not particularly original but I want to give you an antidote to this and celebrate the blue beauties in the cutting patch and the garden. There are so many beautiful blue flowers but the spectrum of shades can vary quite a lot and there are not many ‘true’ blues. I’m a big fan of a blue flower, bit rarer in the garden compared to other colours, and they are always treasured.  Borage, this is a proper blue colour, found in many a herb garden, we sell it at Higgledy garden because its such a good plant for pollinators. It produces prodigous amounts of nectar (topping itself up every two minutes) and flowers for months. The star-like flowers are edible, probably one of the most beautiful of the edible flowers with its dark black stamens. Most people think of it as that blue flower found in your Pimms, but also beautifully brightens up your salads, tasting vaguely of cucumber. You can eat the leaves too, think they would have to be very young and fresh, but they are said to contain plenty of Vitamin C. The plant itself is a hairy beast and can grow up to 1m tall when really happy and is a substantial plant, maybe needing some support. It will thrive the best in a sunny site but can cope with some shade. Once you have sown it once it will often self seed but they are easy to dig up so never really cause a problem. Here it is with Feverfew, Cynoglossum ‘Firmament, white Oreganum and Larkspur ‘Imperials‘.Cerinthe, ok its not really a blue flower but I’ve included it in here because of the fabulous glaucous blue foliage. Actually its quite hard to describe the colour of the foliage and flowers it has shades of purple and grey and the flowers are bluey-grey with the bottom tipped in white. Its one of the most reliable plants in my cutting patch, grown for its foliage more than anything but the flowers are beautiful too and again the bees love it. I had a patch in a raised bed near the door of my potting shed and I could hear the bees humming around it from inside the shed. So yes another great one for bees, its otherwise known as Honeywort and like the borage produces lots of nectar. It is a very succulent plant and if you are using it for cutting it helps to sear the ends in boiling water for 10 seconds and then put in cold water and leave to condition preferably overnight. It can still be a bit floppy in habit but I like that movement in a posy but if you want nice straight stems then wrapping them in paper is supposed to keep them straight. I do a sowing of this in the autumn and most years these come through but if we get a prolonged very cold spell then I have lost them. But they are pretty speedy too from a spring sowing and its worth doing multiple sowings to keep it growing well through the summer. Easy to collect your own seed from it too.Here it is with Orlaya grandiflora, Silene vulgaris and Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’.Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’, the bluest of them all. Cornflowers are my go to autumn sown annual. They germinate quickly in the warmth of September. I grow them on into 9cm pots and they are tough and hardy and can cope with even the hardest frosts. I plant them early in March and then they will be flowering by June, earlier than any spring sown annuals but again like Cerinthe its worth doing multiple sowings to extend the season of cutting. The autumn sown ones will also be taller and more substantial plants, I just love cutting big bunches of it with buds and all, the buds are beautiful wafting about in your bouquets. They do get tall and will need some support.Here it is with Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Canterbury bells and various sweet peas.Didiscus ‘Blue Lace’, I have a confession about this plant, its a real beauty, and I rather enviously see it grown in other peoples cutting patch but I had a complete failure with it last year. Germinated lovely, pricked out happily and grown on well into larger pots. Lost a few to slugs straight away in the greenhouse, but I always sow more than I need so was still able to plant out 5 plants. I probably did plant them out a bit too early but the weather was set fair, but then we had a late cold spell and so they paused growing, this isn’t good for tender annuals. Then I took my eye off the ball and slugs again. The air was blue that morning when I saw a slug had just literally grazed off the whole row, not even bothering to munch away at the plant just cutting them off nicely at the base so that they had no chance of growing again. But I will try again this year, protect them, cosset them and hopefully this year I will have some of those delicate beautiful lacy flowers. Perseverance!

Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ this is another stalwart on my cutting patch, it is a lovely filler flower but I grow it more for the bees. They love it. Its a cultivated form of the native wild flower Vipers Bugloss. Richard Mabey in Flora Britannica delightfully explains the viperish name ‘The sprays of flowers spiral up the stem half coiled, the long red stamens protrude from the mouths of the blue flowers like tongues and the fruits resemble adders heads’. I’ve seen it flowering on the sand dunes above Woolacombe beach and its a common wild flower in dry open spaces. Another copious nectar plant from the Borage family, it is another plant that hums with bees in the summer. I’ve also grown the white form of it and this is especially nice in arrangements but slightly less popular with the bees. The plants prefer a sunny spot with good drainage and can seed around if happy. The flowers fade to a pinky colour and its another hairy leaved plant.  It looks amazing growing with bright orange Calendula ‘Indian Prince’. Here with Calendula ‘Sherbert Fizz’.Larkspur ‘Imperials’ this is a seed mix but one of the amazing colours in there is a deep blue almost purple, which I try to save seed from each year. It looks great in a bouquet with the blue of Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ and Cornflowers too. Again contrasting well with the yellows and oranges of Calendula. These can be sown in the autumn but also late winter, they need some cold to kick start their germination so you can sow and then put in an unheated greenhouse or put the seeds in the fridge for a couple of weeks. They get tall and will need some support, but keep cutting them and they will flower for a long season. Here with Feverfew, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Sweet pea ‘Nimbus’ and Echium ‘Blue Bedder’.Nigella ‘Oxford Blue’ and Nigella ‘Delft blue’. These often do better from having been sown directly and as such its nice to dot these around your patch where you have some space. Is there a more romantic name for an annual than Love-in-a-mist? Its a perfect name for this delicate flowered beauty though they are pretty tough in the cutting patch and are a good one for seeding around once you have them. I especially love the Nigella ‘Delft Blue’, each flower has a different pattern of flowers. For picking in flower cut as they are just fully open, but always good to leave some for their fabulous seed heads and to allow some to set seed for next year. Again they are good from an autumn sowing but easy in spring too.

Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ the workhorse of my cutting patch. Again a bit of a purply blue but lets not get into an argument. This year I have sown some in the autumn and they seem to be doing OK so far so hoping for some earlier flowers this year. I will sow again in the spring too. Its such a long flowerer on the cutting patch, a proper cut and come again crop. You can get this in a range of colours but I particularly like this blue form. The actual flowers on the stem are tiny but its the bracts that are the showy part, even as the flowers have faded the bracts hold their colour well. It is also good for drying.Here with Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’, Zinnia ‘Mammoth’ and Larkspur ‘Imperials’.Cynoglossom ‘Firmament’ a beautiful sea-like blue colour, also called the Chinese Forget-me-not, I love this flower and also the delicate pink form ‘Mystic Pink’. I sow this in the spring undercover and plant once the frosts have passed. Like Cerinthe it can be a bit floppy if the stems are not seared in boiling water first, for picking best to wait to till all the flowers are open up the stem. The seeds are sticky fellas and will stick all over you if you wait for them to set seed before cutting back.Here with Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Feverfew, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’ and white Oreganum.So there you go some of my favourite blues. Hopefully some colour to brighten your monday.

Spring will soon be here.

Higgledy Anne

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