Great Blues

Pulmonaria. Shade lovers, Pulmonarias or lungworts do best in rich, well-drained soil that is kept moist. Foliage is marbled, mottled, or dappled with spots in white or silver. This woodland garden includes two blue-flowered lungworts: Pulmonaria Glacier and Pulmonaria Benediction. The accompanying white flower is Symphytum x uplandicum variegatum, a hybrid comfrey.

"The dark, velvety leaves of Pulmonaria angustifolia hug the ground. The white spires of Tiarella Wherryi squirt above the lungwort's bright blue flowers.

Pulmonaria "Benediction" has large leafy clumps of dark green foliage with widely spaced silver spotting and spring flowers of dark blue.

 

Anemone blanda. Commonly known as Grecian Windflowers, garden varieties of Anemone blanda bloom in sky blue and dark blue. Plant tubers in groups of two dozen or more under trees and shrubs for drifts of intense color.

Wood Hyacinth. This bulb plant grows in vaselike clusters of narrow, glossy leaves. The bell-shape flowers bloom in late spring on sturdy spikes. Wood hyacinths can be planted in half sun or full shade.

Primrose. Primula vulgaris Eugenie, like other double-flowered primroses, is a long bloomer. Primrose varieties like light shade, fertile soil, and moist conditions. Japanese primrose (Primula japonica) also is available with purple and magenta blossoms.

Omphalodes cappadocica 'Starry Eyes.' Omphalodes cappadocica is a demure species that clumps rather than creeps. Its flowers range from soft mauve to deep blue. A relatively new perennial, it blooms in spring. Here, the tiny bicolored blooms teeter above Lamiastrum Galeobdolon 'Herman's Pride' and Tricyrtis hirta x formosana.

Soldanella montana. A low-growing herbaceous species, Soldanella montana is quite at home in the woodland garden. Its nodding indigo-blue cups, their petals frilled, rise above glossy mats of foliage.