SUMMERTIME BLUES

TEXAS’ SUMMERTIME BLUES

by MARC HESS, EDITOR OF GARDENING SOUTH TEXAS

What would our South Texas garden beds and landscapes be without the cooling colors of blue Plumbago, the shoots of a Texas Vitex, cheery Morning Glory, low growing Ajuga, Moss Phlox, creeping Passion Flower or the long blooming Verbena.

Blue’s recessive quality serves as a beautiful blender for other colors and makes it appear warm or cool relative to its tint and plant companions. Cool, pale blue flowers, knit other colors together. Blue, in any hue, mingles well with pink, yellow, and its opposite: orange. Borders painted with blue, yellow, and orange or a trio of blue, red, and lime green, add pizzazz to summer landscapes. Blue has a stabilizing effect when placed near electric colors such as chartreuse, magenta, crimson, or hot pink.

The world’s most favorite color is blue. Blue is the number-one color choice for everything from house paint to the blue jeans almost everyone wears. Yet it turns out that the color blue is surprisingly hard to come by in nature. Less than 10 % of the 280,000 species of flowering plants produce blue flowers. Those plants that do appear blue are in fact often using a red pigment known as anthocyanin. Through pH shifts and a mixing of pigments, combined with the reflection of natural light, the plants are able to generate the appearance of a naturally occurring blue color. That’s the reason why plants such as Bluebells, Hydrangeas and Morning Glories “appear” various shades of blue, when in fact, “There is no true blue pigment in plants,” according to renown biologist, David Lee, author of Nature’s Palette: The Science of Plant Color. While that may be a fact of science, that should not stop us from choosing these blue flowering plants for our South Texas gardens.

Using Color In Your Garden:

For subtle, impressionistic contrasts, combine blue with its cool cousins: lavender, gray, and green.

How To Beat The Heat:

Get to know Blue Daze. It’s a heat and sun-loving, low spreading tropical plant used as a summer annual. The variety provides gardeners and homeowners summer-long flowers of a beautiful sky-blue hue. It’s a longestablished Texas gardening staple.

It’s also considered a “Texas Superstar.” In order to receive this designation, a plant must be beautiful and perform well for growers throughout the state. It must also be easy to propagate, be easy to find and be reasonably priced.

Blue Daze thrives in garden hotspots that threaten less-hardy plants. It grows best in full sun and will produce fewer flowers in areas that are too shady. The plants beautiful attributes put Blue Daze over the top for a lot of gardeners and landscapers.

Blue is perhaps the rarest color among plants. Blue is not a common color in plant organs other than flowers which suggests that blue as a flower color has advantages for attracting pollinators that warranted its evolution in flowers.

~ Dr. Jerry Parsons, Retired Bexar County Extension Agent

Other Noteworthy Blues:

Mealycup Sage

Central Texas native, Mealycup Sage appears in spring with blue flower spikes all summer long. A short-lived perennial, it normally freezes back down to the ground in winter. Finches and other wildlife may be attracted to the seedheads. For a Central Texas native, Mealycup Sage has been widely used in horticulture, with many, many selections and cultivars available

Blue Curls

(Aka caterpillars) are usually found in large colonies. Its purple to lavender-blue, bellshaped flowers, deeply lobed at the rim, have conspicuously protruding stamens. The flowers are numerous, in slender, coiled clusters which uncurl as the buds develop. Leaves are soft and deeply cut, appearing ragged-looking.

Hyacinths

A perennial, bulbous spring flower that are as popular for their color as for their fragrance. Hyacinth is the common name for approximately 30 perennial flowering plants. The common Grape Hyacinth bears tight blooms in a raceme resembling clusters of grapes. After they bloom in spring, allow your hyacinths to grow until the leaves die off. They need time after blooming to store energy in the bulbs for next year. To remove the dead plant, either snip them off at the base, or twist the leaves while pulling lightly. Hyacinths are a perennial, bulbous spring flower from the genus Hyacinthus in the Asparagaceae or asparagus family.

Blue Plumbago

The ease of growth, minimal basic needs and negligible pest and disease problems make Blue Plumbago a good choice for gardeners who are looking for a year-round blast of blue in their landscapes.

There’s no better way to make a garden pop than by introducing a bold splash of blue. Plant flowers like Blue Salvia and Yellow Daises together to create beautiful contrast in the garden. Whether your color scheme is pinks and reds, yellows and oranges, or an eclectic mix, the addition of blue – at random or as a focal point – wakes up a garden.

MARC HESS is an author whose latest novel, “The Gillespie County Fair,” is available on Amazon. It’s a riveting story about the gentrification of rural Texas. He is also the editor of Milberger’s Gardening South Texas newsletter, a monthly (except January) publication covering the challenges and solutions of gardening in South Central Texas’s unique growing zone. It’s available on-line at no charge at https://www.milbergernursery.com/newsletter-archive/