Virginia Blue Bells

~ By Aletha ~

I am going to write about one of my favorite flowers in the spring called Virginia Blue Bells. I saw them on a drive one day by someone’s lawn and pulled over to ask the lady who was cleaning the ground around them, what they were. She was kind enough to tell me and we started talking about them, she got one as a gift from her husband one year and planted it and then went out to buy more.

They come up in late spring for a short time and then die back and disappear so if you plant something in front of them that is good. I love their look and so I have one in my yard on the north east side of my house. They grown to from 1 to 2 and 1/2 feet tall and will branch out occasionally. The flower is tubular in shape with white stamens with light brown anthers and is loved by Humming birds, Honey bees, Mason bees and Butterflies because of its sweet nectar.

I want to get more of these and make a small garden around some trees. They like moist wood lawn areas near some rich soil so if you don't have that it doesn't mean you can't grown them but you will need to bring rich soil and put it into where you want to plant them. This can be expensive to do all at once, so do it little by little and make sure you test your soil. I do test my soil to make sure if compost needs to be added.

I love when it comes up every year and it gets a little bit bigger each time. I really do not do much to it but I do amend the soil every 3 years in my garden. Flowers appear for about a month and I know it is not long but oh what a pretty blue it is. You do not have to do anything during the winter time at all since you will not see it. Sometimes you may not see all the blue flowers but see a lot of the green leaves which are a sage green color.

I love this plant that is in the Borage family and if you ever see one out there do try and plant one as they are really pretty. Boraginaceae which is also in that family, for those of you who do not know, but like me have heard of the plant also have forget-me-not, Monkswort and Lungwort to just name a few. The Virginia Blue Bell is hardy in zones 3 to 8 so that is a wide range.

The bluebells has 32 geniuses to name a few of those Bunnera, Fiddleneck, Forget-me-not and the Saucer flower. So the Borage family is big and under each one of those that I have named there are more families.

For those that do not have Bluebells see the picture below that I got off the Internet since mine are not up yet. I do hope you enjoyed reading about my Virginia Blue Bells.

Photo borrowed from:

http://www.dutchbulbs.com/store/perennials/62968

for illustrative purposes only.

         

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