Blue flowering plants add serenity to a garden and can even make a hot garden feel a bit cooler with their cool colors. Shrubs with blue flowers are not as common as many other colors, so the key to enjoying the color is planting a variety of different types of blooming plants including flowering annuals, perennials and vines that bloom at different times in spring, summer and autumn. The relaxing blue can be enjoyed throughout the season and blends well with the other cool colors of purple, pink and white.

What may be confusing or surprising about this list of blue flowering shrubs are the pictures with pink flowers. In Bigleaf Hydranges the color of the flower is determined by the pH of the soil. Acidic soil (pH 5-5.8) will produce blue flowers and alkaline soils (pH 6-7) will flower pink. Also consider the Blood-on-the-snow Hydrangea and the Japanese Mountain Hydrangea.

Several of these blue flowering shrubs are native plants, which are more naturally insect resistant, salt tolerant and have natural disease resistance. Catawba Rhododendrons are among the hardiest Rhododendrons and have a beautiful range of bloom colors including lavender-blue. Leadplant Amorpha is not well known but deserves more use for landscaping because it resembles the non-native and sometimes invasive Butterfly Bush is a low maintenance shrub and is also drought tolerant.

To view learn more about blue flowering shrubs, please visit Virtual Plant Tags.