Turquoise Birds Turquoise Flowers

This turquoise birds turquoise flowers blog came out of an often asked question : – “How do you find the inspiration to design gardens?”

It’s a question I’m often asked. So I thought I’d share one of the ways in which this particular garden designer finds her inspiration to create a practical paradise in your ‘back yard’.

‘Turquoise birds Turquoise flowers’ are the theme, but how did I get to that colour in particular?

A few days away in a different part of the country where ‘things to do’ did not specifically include gardens to visit offered an opportunity to enjoy some different pleasures, including local food and attractions. However, habits are not easy to break, and I still found myself awake early and needing to go out for a run, dog or no dog! The weather was lovely and a walk / run through a local nature reserve was hardly a hardship. On the contrary I had the (for me) rare delight of seeing a Kingfisher; that flash of cyan blue is unmistakable.

These turquoise birds are such a stunning shade, that later, whilst I was sipping my morning espresso, it made me think; turquoise flowers are not the most common colour to choose; I’m usually told that pinks and reds are my clients’ favourite colours for flowers. Turquoise, along with purple is one of my favourite colours and I began to ponder on whether it would be possible to have a ‘turquoise garden’ along the lines of the ‘white garden’ at Sissinghurst.

So which turquoise flowers could grow in such a garden?

Himalayan Blue Poppy

Of course I thought of the Himalayan blue poppy, Meconopsis betonicifolia. Meconopsis ‘lingholm blue’ has petals of a particularly good shade of turquoise that retain their brightness. Regular readers of Plews Potting Shed blogs may recollect I have previously extolled the delights of Meconopsis in Scottish gardens and at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Personally, I have not been successful in growing Himalayan poppies; or rather I’ve managed to grow them but not to retain them for subsequent years. They are slightly tricky to establish needing cool damp conditions and an acidic soil; it is the cool damp that I have a problem with but I shall be trying again (although not when we’re promised a long hot summer!)

Around the feet of the poppies I would grow Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica). These delightful self-seeding annuals are easy maintenance gardening; let a few of them set seed and you have a guaranteed floral carpet the following spring. The petal colours are generally fit the criteria of our turquoise flowers, but you’ll find also find forget-me-nots with pale blue, white and even pale pink flowers.

Love-in-a-mist

Another annual flower that self seeds so offers low maintenance gardening is Nigella damascena or Love-in-a-mist. Like the forget-me-not, there is some variation in the flower colour, especially after a few years, when there seems to be a higher incidence of whites and pale blues amongst the turquoise. This dilution of our chosen jewel colour once a bit of interbreeding occurs can be avoided by preventing the flowers from dispersing their seed.

Hydrangea

So far we’ve had turquoise flowers in our turquoise garden from April through to July, but the fine weather isn’t over and neither are the turquoise flowers for your garden. We can extend the season with a Hydrangea.

There are plenty of blue hydrangeas and some of these do tend towards a turquoise hue. I particularly like Hydrangea macrophylla ‘brestenburg’, one of the mop head Hydrangeas. Those close packed domes of flowers pack a colourful punch at the end of the summer.

If you’re not convinced that hydrangeas are for you, I would suggest visiting Holehird Gardens in Cumbria, where they hold one of the National Collections of Hydrangeas.

Like the Himalayan poppies we began with, to get the best turquoise blue hydrangea you need an acid garden soil. But also like the poppies it is possible to grow hydrangeas in a raised bed or (large) pot if your soil is not right.

By contrast, both the forget-me-nots and the love-in-a-mist are easy to give the right soil to as they’re fairly tolerant; to the extent of seeding themselves in the cracks between paving stones. Seedlings in the wrong place are easily lifted and thrown onto the compost heap.

Jade Vine

I couldn’t finish this blog about turquoise flowers without mentioning the Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys). This tropical beauty, seen here in the RHS Wisley glasshouse has hanging trusses of aquamarine flowers from April through to July. This climbing Philippine native can also be seen at Kew and in the botanic gardens of Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

And as for the turquoise bird, as I don’ t have a Kingfisher, that is a little garden ornament that I picked up from a local artist, an amusing addition to a garden border full of turquoise flowers!