Oranges, yellows and reds are the colours of autumn but wandering around our patch today I was struck by the richness of the blues in the late blooms. The rich blue flowers of Ceratostigma plumbaginoides sit above its red tinted foliage. This is a plant to keep an eye on as the temperatures drop in the autumn because the red on its leaves intensifies and spreads. Such a beautiful plant with such an ugly name!
This is a hardy tough sub-shrub or woody perennial but the next blue flower is far from hardy – a salvia with intense blue spires atop dark blue stems with a metallic hue. We raised these from seed in the spring and have been enjoying their flowers since August. We must take cuttings to keep them over the winter.
The blue flowers of the centaurea have been around for months with their delicately cut petals curling up from their dark purple centres above their soft hairy leaves.
greenbenchramblings 
One reply on “Autumn Blues in the Garden”
Loving the photos. I particularly like that Salvia, the colour is incredible. I was looking in my garden the other day and was surprised at how much is still flowering. This mild weather has really prolonged the season and we didn’t get the frost last week that they had predicted.