Gardening with Gary

Gardening Advice from an Expert

Green and Blue Flowers

Q. I cannot seem to find any flowers that have a deep standard blue or standard green flower. Are there such flowers? I could dye some white flowers, but I would like to find some that are natural, like a blue or green rose.

A. Sorry, you will not find a green or blue rose....yet! Just as in African violets, we have still not gotten a true deep blue without the purple or violet overtones, but we do have many green ones and some are quite dark. They must be ordered from catalogs or experts as they are not very common.

In green and blue, the horticulture field is lacking. Mother Nature never wanted to produce these flowers since they do not attract insects very successfully and that is the purpose of the color of the petals and sepals. It is to draw 'beings' to the flowers and move the pollen from the anthers over to the female part and allow a seed pod to develop, form seed and reproduce its heritage another generation. She is SO smart!

Bells of Ireland, some iris, marigold, zinnia have green to greenish flowers. Blue is available in morning glory, larkspur, lobelia, delphinium, scabiosa, periwinkle or myrtle, just to name a few in each color. Some of these are not the true deep blue you are seeking and some are more toward the pale sky blue, but there are some out there.

I recommend that you get the new 2002 seed catalogs available for free up to $3 and browse through the pages and pick out what you see is the closest to what you desire. If anything else, you will have a wonderful entertaining trip along Nature's path of beautiful flowers to look at, enjoy and grow!