Gentiana 'True Blue'
Ispahan Zone6a Chicago
11 years ago
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wieslaw59
11 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Blue Drumstic vs True Blue Alium
Comments (2)Difficult to think of a true blue flower, other than a few, and Alliums are not on my list. All seem a blue shade of violet, and my camera does not report them faithfully. I call some Gentians true blue, Forget Me Not, and Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, but not too many more. Some catalogs are notorious for inaccurate coloring....See MoreVery inexperienced need help
Comments (2)You can plant them in their eventual permanent position and fill in with annuals but make sure they don't get smothered out by annuals. You can pot them up and keep them watered over the summer and plant them in early fall. You can make an in ground nursery bed for small plants and tend them there. These plants should all be transplantable during spring or fall. I have read that grasses do much better transplanted in spring but am not sure myself. I find ornamental grasses take a while to get established but one they do, you have a substantial chunk of grass to deal with from then on out! Bee balm can spread quite a bit by underground runners. If you have a lot of space you'd like to fill in with some color, I'd use some easy annuals from seed (zinnia, cosmos, marigold, sunflowers for example). You should still be able to plant seeds of these directly in the ground for flowers this summer. In the mean time, take time to look at desirable plants in other yards and note especially how they change throughout the season. Any garden tours in your area? Great way to get planting ideas and info....See MoreAnother true blue flower
Comments (8)I like blue and use it a lot - in the garden; in the house; in my wardrobe... but I've never felt the need to pursue 'true' blue - if it's reasonably blue, I'll likely be happy with it :-) Color preferences are definitely a personal thing, although it does change over time I've found. In general, these days I prefer cool colors more than 'hot' ones. I do like pink - but mainly the cooler shades of pink. And I prefer to use large quantities of a color - I'm drawn for some reason to monochrome type color schemes where the planting includes variations of a limited number of colors. Sometimes though the introduction of an unexpected color can be just what's needed. Gardengal- orange is one of those colors that I don't normally use but I particularly like the spring scene out the window of my home office. The squirrels obviously raided a neighbour's tulip bed and added their booty to my garden! I wouldn't have planted these tulips myself but I love the combination and, luckily, it has been coming back for at least 5 years now! Without the orange, this would be a rather dull scene...: Another accidental orange combination I really like is this one of some of those cursed ditch daylilies that came with the house plus the next-door-neighbour's Jackmani (?) clematis tumbling over the fence. I like it so much that I have refrained from ripping out the ditch daylilies (that are otherwise a PITA!) I seem to have strayed off topic somewhat here but I really like playing with color and am always looking for color combinations/ideas to adopt. How do you use orange gardengal - i.e. what are some of your favorite orange scenes?...See MoreColor - in Pursuit of Blue
Comments (42)I found out something interesting by mistake yesterday. I had a bouquet of flowers of nearly identical colors...some dahlias, liatris, astilbe, and dianthus (D. amurensis, Siberian Blues). The dianthus almost perfectly matched one of the dahlias...Vassio Meggos. I took pictures in various light...in the house no flash, outside in the shade, outside in the sun, inside under the kitchen lights, and inside with a flash. Although all these flowers were very similar colors to the naked eye, they all had varying changes when photographed, depending on the lighting used. The most striking difference was the dianthus, which came out true blue in one of the photos, even though none of the other, similar and in one case nearly identical, colors came out blue. I wish I'd saved it to post here, but the color of the dianthus was so far off that I deleted it. The link below shows one of the photos...the dianthus shows up darker and bluer than it really is, and the "matching" dahlia shows up slightly pinker. In the garden they grow next to each other, and you would swear they were exactly the same color. Here is a link that might be useful: my flowers...See Morerouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
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11 years agoLinnaeus474
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