The Amazing Summertime Blues

The backyard entry garden greets people with
native flowers including penstemon and flax.

Posted by: Todd Hagenbuch, CSU Routt County Extension

The only thing that really makes me really blue in the summer is knowing that it is but a fleeting moment for us in the Yampa Valley. This year that seems especially true as the winter snows stayed longer than usual and we had an exceptionally short spring. As a result, our growing season seems even more compressed than usual…which is saying a lot. Those winter snows and spring storms, however, provided water for a spectacular season of blooming native plants, and not only those growing in wild areas.

As part of a landscaping plan that focuses on reducing water use while also providing bountiful color, natives have played a key role in making our family’s yard a sea of red, white, and blue over the July 4^th holiday. Rocky Mountain penstemon plays the starring role for blue, with flax and lupine playing a supporting role. Red columbine, white snow-in-summer, and white campion help complete the colors of our flag, with some annuals in pots thrown in for good measure. But it’s the blues that really make a statement.

Penestemon rises above the flax with
snow-in-summer in the background

Rocky Mountain Penstemon (Pensemon strictus) is a long-lived native that grows naturally in sagebrush pastures, meadows, scrub oak stands, and openings in aspen/spruce mixed forests. It has blue flowers that range in shade from light blue to almost purple, with most in my yard blooming a shade of royal blue. Being adapted to many of our local soils and ecological sites, it is an easy-keeper in the garden and requires little, if any care. Pollinators love it, with not only bees and wasps visiting it, but hummingbirds, too, on occasion. It will spread and reseed, so if you don’t have an area where it can run free, note that some control may be needed to keep it in check.

Blue flax (Linum lewisii) has been a favorite of mine for years. In fact, when my wife and I got married 17 years ago (!), we gave packets of flax seeds to our wedding attendees to plant in their yards to remember the event as our colors were pale yellow and flax blue. I love seeing flax bloom in pastures, on hillsides, and along roadways, where it is a favorite reclamation plant. This fine-leafed plant is a perennial, and if you save the seeds and spread them, you can get stands to spread, even though I don’t find it to be aggressive. It is exceptionally drought tolerant and tolerates most of our native soils.

Silver lupine (Lupinus argenteus) is another native that we enjoy having in our yard. Our particular plants are a blue that tends toward lavender, but they can be many shades of blue, purple, and even pink! Lupine are very drought resistant and are liked by all of the same pollinators as the penstemon. Note if you have livestock that propagation of this plant isn’t warranted because it does have toxic principles that make it unsafe for grazing, but in a yard can be a great addition. The fact that it is a nitrogen fixer and helps add nitrogen to our lean soils is a real bonus.

If you don’t have the summertime blues, find a friend who will save you some seed from one of these pollinator-friendly, low-water-use natives; you’ll be thrilled you did!

Lupine in the foreground with penstemon and 
campion filling in behind