Blue Flowered Ground Covers
Perennial Ground Covers with Blue Flowers Surround Your All Blue Flower Garden with a Carpet of Blue Flowers By Using A Blue Flowering Ground Cover
Blue flowered ground covers offer another opportunity to add the color blue to your yard and flower garden.
Blue Flowers to Plant as Ground Cover
Many blue flowered plants can be used as groundcovers to produce an attractive display. Keep in mind that a ground cover can be very short or relatively tall, as long as it is densely planted to cover a given area and is a plant that can spread over time so it crowds out weeds.
Vinca minor (Periwinkle) and Liriope
The traditional groundcovers of Vinca minor (Periwinkle) and the blue flowered Liriope cultivars such as "Big Blue" are perhaps over planted in some areas, but they occasionally serve a useful purpose.
The Vinca's glossy evergreen foliage is attractive year round and its cheery spring flowers in bright blue are always welcome. (Please check before planting this to be sure it is not considered a problem plant or garden escapee in your local area.) Liriope adds a useful grassy texture to the shady garden and can be used in imaginative ways. Both of these plants will grow relatively well in dry shade.
Violets are Blue
Violets can sometimes become a pest in a shady lawn, but on the other hand can be a delightful groundcover in a shady area. Some violets are purple flowered while others are bluer. This is certainly a case where the color is in the eye of the beholder so you need to look at a specific plant yourself and see if it is blue enough to satisfy. For example, while I find that Viola cucullata "Freckles" has blue freckles, you might find them purple.
Iris cristata
Iris cristata can be planted as a groundcover in a woodland or semi shady garden spot. It is a diminutive spreading form of iris with upright foliage that creates a perfect textural contrast to ferns and hostas.
Veronica repens
This sprawling low grower produces tiny true blue flowers. It can be used as a groundcover over smaller areas such as between stepstones or in the rock garden.
Ajuga and Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Leadwort or Hardy Plumbago)
Among ground cover plants with blue flowers, the perennials Ajuga and Ceratostigma plumbaginoides stand out. Ajuga brings interesting foliage texture and sparkling blue blooms. There are many different varieties of Ajuga available, including some with lovely foliage colors for added interest all season.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides offers not only brilliant blue blooms in late summer and into the fall, but it also turns a brilliant red in the fall. This is a great plant so do not let the difficult name put you off -- just call it hardy plumbago and you'll be fine, even though it isn't really a plumbago.
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Copyright September 10, 2006 Barbara Martin All Rights Reserved
