Garden trends are singing the blues

This spring gardeners are going to get the blues.

Blue and cold colors are in season for many gardens this year, and in Alaska, the same rings true. Does dark, rich, inky strains that make you want to croon something bluer than velvet in the night? How about an electric purple haze to recharge your perennial beds?

The color trend folks are at it again. This year, blue is the new green.

Many garden magazines on the market are touting cool blue-green water tones, deep rich kimono purples and reds, and the neutral tones of metallics and stone are the “in” colors for gardens. Hardy perennials, such as delphiniums, lilies, veronicas, campanulas, thorn berries, lilacs and monkshood, are all dressed up in rich shades of azure to plum purple and are ready to party down in your garden.

For those gardeners with new, unplanted beds, here is an opportunity to go bold.

The monochromatic, or single-color, theme makes a simple, yet elegant, statement in contemporary gardens. Mix several shades of blue and purple with a splash of wine red in a drift, punctuated with a large metallic urn or the rich gray tones of a large boulder for a dramatic effect.

Or try a big, silver annual such as dusty miller or a large specimen of blue-green ornamental grass such as helictotrichon (blue oat grass) in a large, dark red-glazed urn for a stylish focal point among the blues.

New Zealand hybrid delphiniums are the drama queens of the garden with plenty of deep, velvety blues from the tall, deep purple and azure pagan purple, the true sky blue lace, to the shorter lavender and sky blue morning lights. These garden aristocrats are very hardy and given rich, heavy soil and regular watering will produce abundant spires of double and semi-double flowers that are glorious in large cut-flower arrangements.

Japanese thornberry, or Berberis thunbergii, can be a dramatic shrub that can shine with a neon lime beacon in its yellow-leafed form aureum.

The large burgundy leaves of crimson velvet and royal cloak are hardy substitutes for the purple smokebush, which is not viable in our Zone 3 gardens. Its deep, dark tones set off golden pompons of tiny flowers that hang under their arching branches. This shrub works well in Japanese-style gardens with large boulders and the dry stream beds of washed gravel.

Plum purples are a knockout in a lily garden.

The golden orange Asiatic lily (brunello) really pops planted among the plum purple America and the dwarf El Grado lilies for a warm look. The deep wine color of America really heats up next to loreto, a gold lily with deep maroon wine brushstrokes at the throat.

Those same plum purple lilies cool down paired with the double pink lily elodie and the single centerfold’s white velvety petals with maroon whisker marks.

Asiatic lilies are bold, vigorous perennial bulbs that will give years of pleasure in a sunny, well-drained location.

A new Veronica on the market is foxy lady, a sport of red fox with bi-colored bright fuchsia and white candy-striped flowers. Veronicas are a cast-iron perennial with colors ranging from white to navy blue that make colorful, spiked, compact mounds that pair beautifully with the blue family.

A full sun to part shade perennial in regular garden soil, Veronicas make lovely cut flowers, have a long bloom period and flowers that resist rain damage.

Blue-green is a cool neutral color that works with warm or cool color palettes. Blue fescue grass and helictotrichon are the hardiest of the ornamental grasses for our gardens. Hosta is even hardier and comes in a wide range of greens, blues and chartreuse, solids and variegated or splashed with cream.

Both perennials can be used to offset dark colors to great effect. While the grasses need a sunnier position, the hosts can take up to 3/4 shade in our gardens. But don’t forgo the hosta just because you have a sunny garden. Mine love full sun where they hug a large boulder that anchors a corner of the border.

Gardeners don’t have to rip out the whole garden to jump on this year’s color trend bandwagon. You just have to squeeze in a couple of them here and there to refresh your palate.

Pop a few blue annuals into a container, repaint your old lawn furniture blue, paint your containers several shades of blue and you’re already trendy.

French novelist and author of “Gigi,” Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, noted Atheres are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine. Be a trend-setter and develop a collector’s eye for the blues.

Brooke Heppinstall, artist and gardener, is owner of Wool Wood Studio and Gardens, an art studio and nursery specializing in Alaska-grown perennials and shrubs. Visit online at Woolwood.blogspot.com.