Blue flowering perennials add serenity to a garden and can even make a hot garden feel a bit cooler with their cool colors. The relaxing blue can be enjoyed throughout the season and blends well with the other cool colors; purples, pinks and white. Flowering perennials are great at attracting butterflies and birds, particularly hummingbirds. Most perennials grow well with average soil moisture and partial or full sun, though some can take full shade giving the home gardener more options for use in the landscape.

Flowering perennials can be grown directly in the ground, in containers for patios and decks or even in hanging baskets. Mixed containers are in vogue, often a blend of annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses and even tropicals to take the urn, window box or decorative planter through the spring, summer, fall until frost.

Some perennials with blue blooms are native plants, which are more naturally insect resistant, salt tolerant and have natural disease resistance. Suggestions for using in the home landscape include Aromatic Aster, Big Blue Lobelia, False Blue Indigo, Creeping Phlox and Crested Iris.

In addition, there are several other blue flowering perennials that would be a welcome addition to any garden; Hardy Ageratum adds much needed fall blue color; a native Jacob's Ladder is nice all season; New York Aster provides excellent late summer and Autumn color; where New England Asters' many cultivars have larger flowers; Rocky Mountain Columbine flower shape is striking; Stokes' Asters in shades of pink, lavender and blue in improved cultivars add texture.

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