The color of ocean and sky, 12 ways
Blue in the garden is calming, cooling, promotes insightful, peaceful reflection. Here you’ll see a dozen ways how our gardeners have used it to create sparkling accents and serene calm amongst the surrounding greens. We’ll also list all the blue flowers we could think of,…see if we included your favorite!
Linda Gladman’ blues in the garden
Linda Gladman made this totem birdbath a couple of years ago, she says and fills it with water so her small birds can enjoy it. The blue dangles add sparkle! The base is a deep blue vase and a crisp white plate sits atop.
Babie Song’s simple blue chandelier
Babie Song says, “Here is the chandelier that my husband built for our gazebo recently. It doesn’t light at the moment….I told my husband to put his thinking cap on and see if he could make that happen!” Babie used cobalt blue mineral water bottles and aqua blue insulators to add color.
Marie Niemann blue peacock
Marie Niemann’s ‘peacock’ tail feathers are made from pretty glass Watering Bulbs . She says, “He was super easy to make, I used small wooden dowels to support the globes and simply stuck them in the dirt to form the pattern I wanted. You could also make a starburst design with them similar to a bottle tree at random angles and heights. When springtime comes I’ll make him a body. For now he’s singing… I ain’t got no body… “
Marie, who loves blue in her garden, made beautiful use of the color with her Blue Lobelia filled ‘bike basket’ set in the middle of one of her flower beds. She says, “These are the only flowers I bought so far this year. Can you believe it? Look at all the money I’m saving! They grow in an old galvanized container that I think was used for mail perhaps? ” The birdhouse is handmade by friend, Jeanne.
Marie grows much of her garden from seed, some years, all. Marie’s Garden, all from seed
Paulette Clements’s blue tiled birdbath
Paulette Clements My Bird Bath in Blue Willow–Paulette completely tiled her discarded birdbath with small pieces of ceramic pottery, some in the Blue Willow or similar pattern in a mosaic technique. Charming!
Jeanne Sammons used blue bottles as accents here
Jeanne Sammons used blue bottles to line her planter as a brilliant accent. You only have to place bottles in the area of the planter that shows.
Cindy McRee’s blue glass totems
Cindy McRee says, “My husband and I used up all the blue glass we’ve gathered to make these last glass totems~ time to find another fun hobby! To me they are priceless as an art project we did together, but most of the pieces were gathering dust in a cabinet and the others I paid $1-$3 each at Goodwill!”
How to make a totem Flea Market Glass Garden Totem: Step by Step
Electric Blues
Tanya Goldsmith’s blue bottle collection
Tanya Goldsmith from Blondeponders Garden and Duck tales, collects and displays her blue bottles in a large galvanized watering trough, used as a planter. Flowers in primary colors look so well here.
She says, “My beautiful hibiscus, below, is named ‘Spin the bottle.’ I felt it appropriate to place it near my blue bottles”
Cooling blue
Jeanie Merritt ‘s perwinkle blue petunias
Jeanie Merritt says, “I created a glass birdbath from dishes and vases and set it strategically near this purple petunia… I knew the birds would love the coolness it provided. It’s just a neat place for them to take a drink of refreshing water on a hot day. There always seems to be a bird here…except of course when I go to get my camera.
Jeanie Merritt’s welcoming blue chair
Beautiful and full, this basket of million bells, Calibrachoa , sits proudly in this blue chair, Jeanie says, “with a message of “Welcome” to my visitors.” Would you call this French Blue?
Blue saves the day!
Nancy K. Meyer’s burning bush in Winter
Nancy K Meyer says, “My burning bush, Euonymus alatus, has not been doing well. This year it lost it leaves very early and never burned. I had planned on cutting it off at the ground this spring and see what would happen. Then I started getting all these BLUE bottles and I saw on Flea Market Gardening a bottle tree using a small dead tree, and “the rest, they say, is history”. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next year.”
Next Fall…
“My “dead” burning bush with the blue bottles now! The wind is taking the leaves off quickly. As you can see it got a little reddish” We think it’s brilliant!!
Nancy K. Meyer’s stunning burning bush
Lark Kulikowski created these blue accent stakes
Do you need hose guides? “This is one of several of my glass hose guides. I love how they sparkle in the sunlight.” says Lark Kulikowski. She used a bottle cutter to trim the neck of this vase, then mounted it on a rod or pipe.
Blue flowers for the garden
- Petunias
- Lobelia
- Pansies
- Foam Flower, Ageratum
- Bachelor Buttons, Centaurea Cyanus
- Morning Glory
- Alliums
- Butterfly Bush, Buddleia
- African lily, Agapanthus
- Fan Flower, Scaevola aemula
- Delphiniums
- Forget-me-nots, Myosotis
- Blue Fescue grass
- Hydrangea
- Vinca major, Periwinkle
- Iris, Bearded or Iris sibirica
- Potato Vine, Solanum
- Penstemon ‘Sour Grape’
- Blue oak sage, Salvia chamaedryoides
- Autumn sage Salvia greggii
- Meadow sage, Salvia
- Blue sage, Salvia farinacea
- Cleveland Sage, Salvia Pozo Blue
- Love-in-a-mist, Nigella
- Wild lilac, Ceanothus
- Blue Daze, Evolvulus
- Asters
- Blue Flax, Linum lewisii
- Sea Holly, Eryngium
- Chinese Plumbago, Ceratostigma
What are your blues?
Blue in the garden just seems to pop out at you and yet it is so peaceful to see. What blues do you have in your garden and what blue flowers have we forgotten? Let us know in the comments.
More “Blue”s:
Heavenly cobalt glass in the garden
