I love the color blue in flowers. It’s extremely rare and my attempts to grow the blue poppy came to nothing in my Denver garden. Gardening is an extreme sport here in the semi-arid West. Likewise, the gorgeous blue-colored hydrangea doesn’t do will here. We can grow lovely white hydrangeas, but for the blue flowered versions I let my mind wander to those I saw in the Pacific Northwest during the years I enjoyed living there.

Years ago I discovered the fall-blooming perennial known around these parts as hardy plumbago, and in scientific communities as Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. I’ve grown it successfully in my garden and I love it.

Here is a current picture from my garden.

During the happy years I lived in Tuscany, I noticed a beautiful pale blue flower growing in pots on terraces and window boxes, as well as in more open spaces where it became a huge shrub. I asked around to find out its name and someone told me it’s plumbago. I was doubtful that was correct.

But, it was! They are known as Plumbago Auriculata.

Here’s an example of this tender perennial blooming in my Denver garden this past summer!

I admired the light-blue perennial all over Italy once I knew what it was, and grew it on my Florentine terrace in large pots.

When I returned to Denver in May of 2022, I assumed I wouldn’t see that pretty flower again until I return to Tuscany.

But, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I did some research and discovered that I could buy the plant by mail order, since Colorado is not a natural habitat for this incredible specimen. I bought 3 plants in the fall of 2022 and successfully nurtured them indoors through last winter. As soon as the weather was fine last spring, I set them outside in part sun and enjoyed their blossoms all summer.

As I write this in mid-October 2023, the 3 plants have been transplanted to pots and are sitting in a sunny window inside my house. I hope to get them through another winter and then set them outside again for another season of rare blooms in my Denver garden. In the meantime, I expect to get back to Tuscany, where they grow, literally like gorgeous weeds!