I am doing a sunflower garden this year and I need some ideas for something in front of them. I am thinking something blue or purple - maybe catmint or lavender. Any suggestions?

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 03:51 pm:

Don't plant mint unless you are willing to have it spread. It is a terribly invasive plant. Lavender is nice, and you can cut stems, hang them to dry, and make wreaths or sachets of them. Here is a link to a page about verbena, which also has a fragrance and might be nice, depending on whether they are perennial in your climate. One variety has purple-pink flowers:
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1175.htm
In fact, in reading more about them, I am thinking seriously about planting a couple in my front garden.

Also cornflowers (don't know if they are perennial). There are also some blue or purplish asters, which I think are perrenial. Another option is cosmos, which is not just purple or blue, but is a really nice flower I am going to plant this year. It is not perennial, but grows well from seed. The stems get fairly long and you have these lovely white, pink, yellow and sometimes red or light blue flowers dancing at the tops of the stems almost like butterflys. Here's a link:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/flowers/cosmos/cosmos.html

I put flowers blue purple into google, and came up with this wonderful page of flowers attractive to butterflys, which lists them by name and basic information about height, color, annual/perennial. This is NC State University, so you'd have to check if any of these are good for your zone.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/butterflies/text/butfly_nectar-flowers.html

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 03:55 pm:

Oh, and in my search I learned there are both English and French lavendar, with somewhat different blooming times and appearance.

By Colette on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 07:08 pm:

thanks Ginny, I didn't think of cosmos. I have planted them in the past and they do very well.