3/03-10 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Christine Kelleher, 800-232-9557, Ext. 512, or Gary Doerr, 916-716-1889 Lorraine Flanigan is a freelance garden writer living in Toronto. She is contributing editor for suite101.com’s Gardening in Southern Ontario web site and her City Gardening column appears in Toronto’s Town Crier newspaper. Feel free to use this release in its entirety or in part, with or without the author’s byline

Nothing creates more impact in the garden than colour: hot reds and oranges excite us while yellows cheer us, greens comfort us and blues calm and soothe us.

One of the easiest and most rewarding colour schemes to use in the garden is based on a palette of blue. That’s because the colour blue is a social butterfly in the border. Invite plants with blue flowers and foliage to your next garden party and watch them smooze with violet-hued Clematis and blue-green Hostas while deftly showing off flaming orange poppies and lemony yellow Sundrops. Placed next to the pinks of Phlox or Dianthus, blue creates a chorus of sweet harmonies that sing throughout the border. Remaining true to itself, the palest of blues retains its colour beside even the purest of whites.

From earliest spring to the coldest fall days, blue dances through the garden, opening the season with drifts of Bluebells, then carrying on with a host of Bellflowers, Clematis and Delphiniums before closing the season cloaked in the deepest of Monkshood blues.

Not only are they plants for all seasons, blue-coloured perennials come in shades and tints ranging from the colour of bright summer skies to the watery tones of the deep blue sea, offering plenty of choice for the creative gardener.

Paint your garden in shades of blue with the help of Blooms of Bressingham perennials. In the springtime, Moss Phlox (Phlox subulata) ‘Oakington Blue Eyes’ forms low, spreading mats of sky-blue flowers, its cascading habit making it ideal for rock gardens or sunny terraced slopes while the deep blue flowers of Perennial Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea Montana) ‘Gold Bullion’ bloom against a shock of golden yellow foliage.

All summer long, the large 2½-inch, violet-blue flowers of Crane’s Bill (Geranium) ‘Rozanne’ bob above mounds of slightly marbled, deep green foliage, and the bell-shaped flowers of Bellflower (Campanula poshcarskyana) ‘Blue Waterfall’ accent the yellow-petaled Tickseed (Coreopsis) ‘Golden Gain’. Making an impact in the middle of the border are the steely blue flower heads, stems and leaves of Sea Holly (Eryngium) ‘Sapphire Blue’, a dramatic, architectural perennial that partners well with the lilac-coloured Aster “Flora’s Delight’.

The late summer border comes alive with both fragrance and colour with Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) ‘Blue Cushion’, while the drought-tolerant Salvia ×sylvestris ‘Indigo’ stands tall at the back of the border, the perfect foil for soft yellow drifts of Yarrow (Achillea) ‘Anthea’.

Taking the border from summer into fall, Clematis heracleifolia ‘Alan Bloom’ produces spikes of vibrant, dark blue tubular flowers that are held above its deep green, shrubby foliage. And, not content with a summer fling, Bellflower (Campanula poshcarskyana) ‘Blue Waterfall’ makes one final appearance before ending the season in a flurry of blue.

Blooms of Bressingham, colouring your garden with fine perennials.

Pictures of individual plants available.