I love blue. Blue flowers, especially.

Blue–Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata),

Blue–Majestic Sage (Salvia guaranitica),

and Blue–Heartleaf Skullcap (Scutelleria ovata sp.bracteata).

In truth, most of what I consider “blue” in my gardens has a tinge of lavender or purple,  like this Heartleaf Skullcap,

which is currently at its peak of  loveliness in gardens all around Austin.

It’s difficult to capture the beauty of this plant with my little point ‘n shoot camera because of the subtlety of the blue/lilac bloom paired with the grey/green foliage.

I especially love it with my bright blue, well-used (by the birds, not me!)  bird bath.

Or combined with the cultivar Mealy Blue Sage and small, light blue bird bath situated on a bed of City of Austin recycled glass.

The  Henry Duelberg Sage is a great blue-blooming perennial for Central Texas.  This particular plant is the most purple of the Henrys in my garden,

but, it’s still mostly blue to my eyes.

I’ve noticed that the blues that I grow in my gardens are blue in real-time, but often show purple in photographs.  Conversely, the native bog plant, Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata), is blue to me in this photo,

but in real life, I see it as purple.

I favor blue accents in my  garden art as well.  I usually refer to accent  items as my garden ‘do-dads’.  I’m easy to buy gifts for because it’s fun to have funky or silly or interesting do-dads in the garden.  Do-dads–like my groovy gazing ball,

or my blue glazed pots for plants,

flanked by pots in the other colors I gravitate toward. I augment the blues in the garden with do-dads in these other colors.

But I tend to prefer garden accent pieces in hues of blues.  I chose tile and glass pieces  primarily in blues for the mosaic stepping stone under the archway,

although I could use a few more blue bottles on the bottle tree.

My tree tipped over during a heavy wind a few weeks ago and  two of the four blue bottles that were on the tree smashed–I’m still finding shards of blue glass in that bed.  Sigh.  I’ll have to buy more of this high sugar/caffeine soda for the bottle tree.  I’ll let The Boy drink those, though.

Oops.  Well, this isn’t in the garden and my favorite thing here isn’t the blue wall, either.  He’s studying hard for the SAT.  (More like hardly studying….)

Oh, and not to forget, my wonderful new, blue Sky Chairs.

My old ones finally ripped through ‘n through, requiring replacement.  I loooove these soporific chairs.  Many a snoozy (usually) weekend afternoon/evening I’ve spent lolling about in one or the other of these chairs–listening to the waterfall of the pond, watching birds/owls/bees/butterflies  and enjoying the fruits (or veggies) of my gardening labors.

What colors do you love in your gardens?