Types of Blue Flowers

Blue flowers have an particular quality. Many flowers which can be found in almost every color, just don't have a blue variety, yet shops are filled with painted and dyed blooms since blue is a color almost everyone enjoys. I'll admit, I have a problem with this. I love blue flowers, but I hate it when they're dyed, just as much as I hate all the flower varieties that have 'blue' in their name, but are really lilac, violet or purple.

Many of the genuinely blue flowers can be grown from bulbs, with the result that blue, white and yellow are the most common color schemes for a spring garden. There are some blue flowers which last the summer, but almost none at all to show through fall and early winter.

Blues, purples and green make a cool color scheme for a garden, ideal for shady, restful areas. Bluebells create a natural, wild garden look beneath trees and the blue violet colors of the many varieties of hosta are all ideal for a shady garden, but there's no need to restrict yourself to bulbs or shade loving perennials. If you love blue flowers then trailing stems of wisteria (try 'Blue Moon') are ideal, as are the showy flowers of a blue clematis such as 'Multi Blue'. Let them run wild over walls and trellis camouflaging some of your homes less graceful features. In my home near London I planted blue clematis and a vibrant firecracker honeysuckle. They grew intertwined, the yellow and orange of the honeysuckle making the clematis even more vibrant, and of course adding a delightful scent.

One of the most popular blue flowers for arrangements is the Hydrangea. They brighten gardens throughout the summer and can be found in an astonishing number of varieties. One of the best known is the popular 'Endless Summer' which has stunning blue flowers up to nine inches across when grown on acid soil. If you prefer something more delicate, lacecap hydrangeas make beautiful borders and hedges. Hydrangea serrata 'Blue Billow' has beautiful flowers in early summer, blue at first but turning crimson as they age. Add attractive fall foliage and you have a very desirable plant, ideal for a shady border.

Hydrangeas make beautiful cut flowers and you only need one or two to fill a vase, the problem is that they wilt very quickly. This is easy to deal with as the video below shows, so grow hydrangeas and enjoy the satisfaction of growing flowers you can then arrange in a vase to beautify your home.

Irises are also stunning cut flowers and can be used to create beautiful vertical lines in an arrangement. Modern varieties with frilled petals are far more feminine looking and look wonderful in had tied bouquets. Yellow splashes on the petals seem to make the blue even more vivid.

To add height to any arrangement, delphiniums or agapanthus are ideal, but one thing to beware of is distance. If your arrangement is to be seen from any distance, you'll find that blue flowers tend to disappear, which can be counterproductive. For this reason blue and purple flowers are not ideal for flower arrangements in halls or churches.

All the cut flowers mentioned above can be used in wedding bouquets. Many florists try to avoid hydrangeas because of the need to keep them hydrated. This can be solved by using the right bouquet holder and treating the flowers properly, but there is always a risk.

Country style bouquets can be made using salvia (sage) and cornflowers. More formal bouquets can be made from iris, while cottage garden bouquets often feature hydrangea. If your florist is a good one, she (or he) can create a stunning bouquet from hyacinths, the indivudual hyacinth bells and removed, wired and taped into shape, giving the bouquet a beautful scent. Agapanthus can also be used in bridal flowers, especially since the name literally means 'love flower.'

With the return of the cascade bouquet, the most stunning blue flower for a wedding is without doubt the Vanda Orchid. Use these flower laden stems (available from wholesale florists like Fiftflowers.com) to create the trails for your cascade bouquet (here's how to make one) or cut them short, submerge in a cylinder vase and top with a floating candle. Three of these cylinders together, all of different heights, placed on a mirror mat and surrounded by votives or tea lights will make a memorable blue orchid centerpiece for your table.

Here's a video showing the beauty of the Vanda Orchid 'Blue Magic'.

Blue roses have long been symbols of the unobtainable, of unrequited love, while blue orchids are symbols of immortality, yet any blue rose you see is almost certainly dyed or painted, and although blue orchids do exist, those found in garden centers and stores are rarely genuine.

Most blue flowers contain a substance called delphinidin, an antioxidant. With modern advances in genetic engineering, many plants can be modified to produce this substance synthetically, resulting in a blue flower. One company to do so is Suntory who have created a blue rose called 'Applause' which has been on sale for a year or so, usually at more than ten times the cost of a normal rose. Scientists used pigment producing genes from a pansy, the result, in most pictures, is a lilac rather than blue color, but Sountory is still experimenting, hoping to deepen the blue color and create a true blue rose.