How to Create a Tranquil Blue Garden- Spring Edition

The garden can be a place of calm & tranquility for many people especially during the summer months. But what about in the earlier periods of the year? The early spring season has so many beautiful blooms to offer, many of which are in cooling shades of blues, mauves & white. 

I'm going to give you a few plant ideas to help you create your own early spring tranquil blue garden. I also have a DIY video including a few quick & easy blue calming themed planted container ideas, to help you get the relaxed vibe you may be looking for in your garden at this time of the year. I will post my DIY video at the end of this blog for you.

Starting with this porcelain china blue style Primrose that really sings spring with a hint of chilled happiness! Primrose 'Zebra Blue' 

This is very much a Marmite type of Prim! You love it or you hate it! I actually love this one.... so not sorry! Primrose 'Zebra Blue' has superb bloom power, each flower is so eye catching that you can't help but get drawn into the pretty blue veins popping from each white petal. Such a versatile plant for the garden in the sense that you can plant in full sun, semi shade or even full shade (full shade you may see less blooms, but this beauty will certainly still flower happily). You can plant in borders, pots, baskets, wall planters, keep on a windowsill etc. 

A pretty petalled beauty that can give your garden a fun yet calming vibe, this variety looks fantastic planted with flowers in tones of purple, blue or white for the ultimate tranquil spring garden mix.

Anemone blanda

Who wouldn't want a carpet of pretty blue-mauve florals running through their garden??

Anemone blanda is a stunning flowering bulb, perennial plant. They thrive in shade-part shaded areas in the garden and don't mind growing under trees or shrubs. A lovely tone of blue that can brighten up the early spring garden, blooming throughout the rest of the spring too. Planting in drifts in a lawn would create a wonderful 'river' effect or mix with Cyclamen coum in borders or under trees for a vibrant pink & blue colour combo.

On sunnier days, the long blue petals open out into daisy-like blooms. I like to pick a few of the flower heads and float them in a pretty bowl of water, bringing them into the home for a little spring decor.

Plant the bulbs in autumn or for better results buy the potted version in late winter-early spring from a plant nursery or garden centre & plant out into your desired position.

Muscari- Grape Hyacinth

I actually use to be not so keen on this one.

But with its vast shades of blue from vibrant sky blue to deep ocean blue, even to baby blue and sometimes white, this gorgeous spring flowering bulb has made me fall in love.

Muscari are super easy to grow and will thrive in most positions in the garden. Only have a windowsill? no problem! Plant this beauty in a tea cup or a silver galvanised pot and place proudly on a windowsill, or even on a light filled coffee table. 

Plant in pretty containers for your balcony or patio, pop into a window box, plant in borders, even in small upright gaps in a wall! I could go on, but you get the idea, these pretties are fabulous for adding garden charm in any sized space you have. 

I love making small posies with Muscari flowers, they look just so lovely bunched together. 

You can either plant Muscari bulbs in the autumn, or plant pre-potted & part grown Muscari in late winter-early spring.

I planted up some pretty Muscari bulb bowls & a rustic box a few weeks ago, they are looking so lovely right now! I created a step by step for this project on YouTube, I'll add the video into the end of this blog :)

Perennial Forget-me-not, Brunnera macrophylla 

A sea of calming blue will fill your borders with this one. Brunnera is a fantastic, fast growing ground cover plant. Brunnera will happily grow in full shade, part shade or full sun making it particularly ideal for shady, dull gardens that need a pretty cooling colour-lift in the spring. 

This is a fast spreader so if you need to keep it contained I would advise pulling up unwanted clumps  in the autumn to keep on top of the space it takes up (or you want it to take up!). 

I took the above picture at Hidcote Manor gardens in Spring 2017, all I could see were blue drifts flowing through the lower stream garden such a beautiful sight.

Brunnera will die down in the winter (sometimes clumps of tatty foliage stick around if its a mild winter) bursting back into life early spring, flowering from mid spring into early summer. Ideal for early pollinators & for creating the ultimate chilled blue border.

Iris reticulata 'Alida'

This dwarf flowering Iris is such a pretty delicate powder blue with striking detailing on the inside of the outer petals. Each petal looks like it has been painted with blue water colours, the outer petals have a strike of vibrant yellow that creates a bursting effect on each petal where the blue dapples into a white-even paler blue. This variety of Iris stands low yet proud and looks best in unevenly planted clumps at the front of a border or in a container. Iris reticulata is a wonderful rockery garden spring flower too, mix with white flowering Saxifrage or cascading purple Aubretia for a lovely blue alpine garden display. 

I love blue gardens, they can really create that relaxed, zen like feel that we could all do with from time to time. There are so many flowering plants ideal for the summer garden, but I wanted to show you how easy it is to carry on that beautiful tranquil theme in the spring garden too.

Adding white & cream spring flowers in to your calm planting scheme can help not only break up the blue but also give it a lift, creating the colours of a wave from the ocean!

My suggestion for this? Snowdrops for late winter- early spring blooms, white flowering Muscari & Primula vulgaris 

This beautiful bloom is Snowdrop (Galanthus) 'Bertram Anderson', I took this photo at the RHS London Early Flower Show on the Avon Bulbs stand. This larger bloomed beauty would be ideal for enhancing the calming effect in a blue garden.

Need some planting inspiration? Take a look at my spring bowls video below where I plant up Muscari into bowls with a difference below!

I hope this has inspired you to create a small piece of calming blue tranquility in your garden space for the spring.

Thank you so much if you have read my little blog all the way to the end, you're support & feedback are appreciated & most welcome.

Until next time, enjoy your garden

Lottie x

P.S. I also created a little cooling blue Autumn & Winter hanging basket DIY video too, take a look below :)