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Adding Value To Your Home With Landscaping
When most people think about increasing the value of their home
the first thing that comes to mind is interior renovations.
Things like new carpeting, kitchen cabinets, or new appliances,
but an often overlooked way to make your house value go up...
Gardening Your Personality: The Greens Of Growth
Many gardeners are the nurturing type: just like Mother Nature.
People say they have "green thumbs" because they can make
anything grow. Is your personality the growth type? Are you the
kind of person who wants to see others grow and develop? If...
Granite might of stone - Info and Facts
Granite – Might of Stone FORMATION Granite is generally produced by magma solidifying under extreme pressure. When magma rises, due to being lighter then surrounding rocks, it begins to cool. This cooling happens slowly, and crystals are formed...
Making Your Garden Bloom With Flower Gardening
Flower gardening is basically, adorning your garden with
flowers. Most gardeners, old and new ones alike, want to go into
flower gardening.
There are different forms of flower gardening, as long as it is
a garden with flowers it can be...
The Birth of a Small Container Flower Garden
The Birth of a Small Container Flower Garden This is the first in a series of essays on how I am converting a small (12' x 16') yard in Cody, Wyoming (USA) from a barren wasteland of pea gravel and total shade to a useful summer room that is a...
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Blue Wild Flowers for Your Garden
Planting wild flowers in your garden, or simply scattering wild flower seeds around an area of your yard are both ways to take advantage of Mother Nature's treasured gifts. Wild flowers are carefree, colorful, and tend to attract bees, butterflys and birds. So planting wild flowers not only gives you an easy maintenance flower garden... it also promises to be a constant source of interesting activity throughout the year.
The following wild flowers are blue to purple in color, and some say this is a favorite color of bees.
VIRGINIA or COMMON DAY-FLOWER (Commelina Virginica) - Spiderwort family
The Day Flower has blue, one inch wide or smaller flowers which tend to be irregular. The flowers are grouped at the end of the stem, and are upheld by long leaf-like bracts. The leaves are lance-shaped and 3-5 inches long. The upper leaves form like a hood of sorts about the flower. These wild flowers prefer moist, shady ground and flower from June through September.
The day flower tends to open in the morning and looking somewhat "alert". In the afternoon, or after the bees have visited and fertilized it, the petals roll up and quickly wilt into a wet, shapeless mass which will leave a sticky blue fluid on your fingers if you touch it.
SPIDERWORT; WIDOW'S or JOB'S TEARS (Tradescantia Virginiana) - Spiderwort family
The Spiderwort's flowers are purplish blue in color but on rare occasion they can be white. There's usually several flowers about 1-2 inches wide, and usually contain clusters of drooping buds between long, blade-like bracts at the end. This one can grow from 8-36 inches tall, and has long blade-like leaves. It prefers rich, moist woods, thickets or garden space, and it flowers from May through August.
Like
its relative the dayflower, the spiderwort opens for part of a day only. In the morning it is wide awake and pert; early in the afternoon its petals have begun to retreat and wither away. New blooms appear each day throughout the season though.
WILD HYACINTH, SCILLA or SQUILL. QUAMASH (Quamasia kyacinthina; Scilla Fraseri of Gray) - Lily family
The Wild Hyacinth tends to produce many pale violet blue flowers, though once in awhile they can be white. There tend to be equal groups of 6 flowers on long, oblong-shaped branches. The plant tends to grow 1-2 feet tall, and has grass-like, short leaves. These wild flowers prefer meadows, prairies and stream banks, and they bloom from April to May.
These wild flowers tend to be low maintenance, and they propogate on their own, without being invasive. In addition to attracting bees, the Wild Hyacinth also tends to attract ants, wasps, flies, butterflies, and beetles.
Whether you prefer to start your flowers from seeds or potted starter plants, wild flowers are a wonderful addition to any type of garden. Creating a stand alone wild flower garden is also a fantastic way to make a great, naturalized impression in large or unused areas of your landscape.
Watch for future articles where I'll introduce you to many other wild flowers in a variety of other colors too!
About the Author
© 2005, Kathy Burns-Millyard, The Garden Source Network - http://www.garden-source.com - A premier online publication featuring gardening articles, tips, advice, resources, shopping and supplies. This article may be freely published on any website, as long as the author, copyright, website address and link, and this notice are left intact.
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