There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

Oz, Whether or not you leave them in the peat pellets is up to you. I'd base my decision on a couple of facts: 1) How soon they are going to go into the ground. If you are going to plant them out in March (and with our variable weather, that might be iffy), they should be able to survive that long in peat pellets. Once the plants are 3" tall or so, though, you may need to feed them with a water-soluable fertilizer because peat pellets are essentially "dead" and have no nutrition in them for the plants. You could use the fert. of your choice--I like using liquid seaweed or fish emulsion. 2) How warm the seed-starting room is/how quickly they dry out. One of the problems with peat pellets is that they hold too much water initally when you first add water to them to get them to "expand" and "fluff up", and then once they dry out, it can be very hard to get them wet again. So, water regularly so they don't get dry and hard, but don't keep them sopping wet. If you keep peat pellets too wet, then damping off, which is a disease that kills the seedlings, becomes a huge issue. 3) Potting them up into cups gives them a huge advantage root wise, so I always pot up into cups using a good, sterile soil-less potting mix. Look at the size of your pellets and the size of the roots you can have in those pellets. Then look at a 12 or 16-oz. cup and imagine what size the roots could attain in those. If your plants are going to be inside another 3-4 weeks, your plants could gain a lot of root growth in paper cups during that time. 4) Potting them up into paper cups makes hardening off a lot easier. With larger plants in paper or plastic cups, you'll find the hardening off process will be easier to achieve. Plants in very small peat pellets often dry out very quickly as you are hardening them off outside in the sun and wind. If it is especially windy, they can be blown out of the flat. Plants in cups have a little more weight and hold moisture better, so they are a little easier to manage during the hardening-off process. And, I've grown most of what you've started from seed and they've done well for me here. I haven't grown pilotus, though, and Texas Bluebonnets usually flower in April-May from a fall planting. I am not sure if you'll get flowers this year from seed if it was planted only recently. On the other hand, I have planted "Alamo Fire" (red-flowered) bluebonnet seed in the spring, and those bloomed in June-July. Dawn

This posting had me (almost) sadly laughing because at times I boil about what my lawn service does to my flower beds. Especially this time of year when there really isn't much grass to mow, they concentrate on the beds. They came in and "cleaned" up my beds, i.e. removed all the leaves that were protecting perennials and tender annuals so now there is bare dirt and exposed plants. They even did this in my POTS!!! The other day I drove by the beautiful mormon church in Champion Forest (NW Houston) and the lawn crew was raking all the leaves and pine needles out of the azalea beds and filling giant canvas bags with this material. I wondered if the giant canvas bags were their donation to the recycling effort......I guess it's a small start - take your natural mulch to the landfill in a canvas bag and dump it without the plastic bag! I have caught these guys weed eating in my beds, which means daylilies have been slaughtered (I guess some of them are small and look like grass). But what they can do to your trees with weed eaters and hitting them with their mowers can be really devastating. I have huge chunks taken out of the bases of some of my trees. I have complained, but gently (and a lot of good it's done - NOT). It's a really terrible job, especially in the summer time. We have a very large yard to do and I always feel badly for them, even as they are murdering plants and trees!

Well I'm NOT a blue person. Indoors I have NO blue. My husband doesn't understand this. I have no idea why I feel this way. Outdoors things are different! I have a blue/yellow/white garden bed which I love. Yes, delphineums, catananche, campanulas, baptisia and more, are mixed with trollius, coreopsis moonbeam, peony Claire de Lune and low growing white clematis and aquilegia. It is a big mix and wouldn't be any fun at all without the blue! There are loads of clematis that are purple or blue/purple, but also some very nice blues I think. You do get into the question of "what is blue?" My husband and I think this could well be a male/female issue! Also, by saying a flower is blue, perhaps a catalogue gains more sales? * Posted by: coolbeans (My Page) on Sat, Feb 2, 02 at 13:12 This is my VERY favorite thread, and I totally agree with all those who feel that there is just "something" about blue flowers; they ARE magical, they ARE very special; and they make me happier than any other color flower. Don't know why...I just started a flat full of Bluebird delphinium seeds I saved from my one lonely plant last year. A bunch of them germinated, so now I can't wait to have a huge stand of them! Maybe they won't bloom this year, but maybe they will. And also "true blue" penstemons, I'm trying for the first time. I can't get enough of this precious color. * Posted by: Anne_Marie_Alb (My Page) on Tue, Feb 5, 02 at 17:47 WOW....... Did anyone realize that this thread started almost 5 years ago... on Feb. 15, 1997!!!!! I am amazed it has survived that long. Probably, the oldest thread still on the top page! I wonder if "Clare B" (who started the thread) is still an active member of the Garden Web!!! I personally love blue flowers (I mean blue, and not purple, which I also like). I can't believe how many blue flowers I am starting from seeds this year... and that was just a pure coincidence! I also love RED flowers.. Maybe, I should start a "red flower" thread! I will first check the archives! * Posted by: Clare (My Page) on Thu, Feb 7, 02 at 20:34 Yes, Ann_Marie, I am still here! I will be a bit sad to see this thread fade away when it hits the 100 posts mark. After that, the threads are closed. I don't think I have any true blue flowers still. "Victoria Blue" Salvia is the closest thing. I use it a lot. It is such a heavy, long bloomer, and about one in twenty of them will survive winter here. Just wish I could predict which would survive so that I could save seed from those alone and perhaps work up a more hardy strain. By the way, the Hydrangeas in Memphis, Tennessee are incredible. Some are so saturated blue that I'd have to call them navy. * Posted by: Dswan (My Page) on Sat, Feb 9, 02 at 22:37 I'm going to add to this extremely long thread only because there really is something to true blue. I grow from seed a very difficult plant to propagate called Penstemon cyananthus or Wasatch Penstemon. I cold stratify and plant these every year in hopes of gettting one or two in my garden every year. Absolutely gorgeous. * Posted by: Rosa (My Page) on Mon, Mar 11, 02 at 10:24 Did no one mention Gentians-now those are blue! (along with my favorite penstemson of course-some are indeed blue). * Posted by: pineshade7b ) on Mon, Apr 15, 02 at 11:02 i agree with gloria mc coy. i love blue and green , they are my favorite colors in anything. just look in my house and closets. blue..ocean, blue jeans, my own eyes are blue and my husband's are green. many reasons to answer -why blue. although i do not "hyperventilate" , if i should go into a nursery and ask for a blue -flowering plant and the staff looks down their nose at me, i'll know now that they are only doing it because they think I'M a snob. until i adopted gardening as a serious hobby i had no idea that blue was a "snob" color. i just naturally began to look into flowers in the colors i liked personally. you learn something new everyday. i would have been hurt and confused to walk into a nursery and be looked at like a pariah, what did i say? now i know, thanks clare. * Posted by: DesertGardner (My Page) on Fri, Apr 19, 02 at 12:38 Wow - I never knew there was such a controversy over the color blue in the garden. After reading all the posts, I now understand why some gardeners prefer the color. And I have to say that I've never met any gardeners whom I would consider snobbish. Most of them are really quite down to earth! (if you pardon the expression...) I recently tried planting a red, white and blue flower bed, with 'Victoria Blue' Salvia being my blue color. It's a little too purple and doesn't look right as a "patriotic" design. I will probably tear out the red and white and keep the "blue" (purple) since it seems to like this desert heat. Someone mentioned black flowers, and I remembered seeing black pansies in the most recent Burpee catalog. They're a beautiful velvety black with a spot of yellow in the center. I think I'll plant some this winter, and start an obsession with black flowers! (just kidding Clare...) -Kara [* Posted by: yeona_sky (My Page) on Mon, Jun 24, 02 at 0:37 I just bought a blue poppy and am nervously watching its progress. My success with blues has been an up hill battle, but that hasn't changed my desire to spotlight it in my garden. Why blue?, again it's a passion with me. Clare, I hope you get the last word on this thread, and I hope you understand Why blue, a little better. * Posted by: Duster (My Page) on Wed, Jun 26, 02 at 23:56 I agree with the many others about getting annoyed when purple is referred to as blue. Maybe that's why I take up the cause of truly blue flowers! 99% of my Delphiniums are the true electric blue ones. I'd love one of the Himalayan Poppies but just not right for my little yard. I like the blue flowers, rather than the blue foliage plants. And no, blue is NOT my favorite color - I have nothing blue in my home decor. I just like the uniqueness of the TRUE blue and my stubbornness to get people to stop calling it purple!!!!