Next to the arbor is a buddleia 'Lochinch" with silver green leaves and periwinkle blue flowers. This is the plant that tipped me off to the blue abundance in the walled garden, because it exactly matches the blue ageratum I planted in containers and as an edging plant in the borders this year. And the ageratum is almost an exact match for the Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' blooming at the opposite end of the garden near the Russian sage (Perovskia).
The Russian sage has silvery foliage that looks absolutely ethereal with the tender blue of its flowers. Blue and silver is one of the most peaceful combinations of colors I can imagine. The variety of lavender that I have edging one garden leans toward true blue in color - that blooms madly at the start of summer and again now - even if I am not very good about deadheading it. This second flush of bloom comes on short, fat spikes instead of the long slender ones of the first batch. And while the blue and silver combination there is beautiful, I am always even more pleased by the way the flowers glow against the gold colored dwarf conifers and heaths that surround it.
I grow Caryopteris 'Worcester Gold' for the same reason - blue flowers and gold foliage are an absolutely stunning combination. Veronica 'Trehane' is another plant that produces that harmony of leaf and flower - but for some reason it doesn't like my garden. I've now planted it and killed it the requisite three times so it must be true - I can't grow that plant. If you can, by all means try it - its like sky and sunshine.
One blue that I do not have this year - but hope to next year - is the clematis 'Multi Blue', which I planted on a rose pillar in the center of the raised bed. It took hold and managed to climb to the top of that pillar, but the ornamental grasses surrounding it grew faster. The poor clematis didn't make it into the sunshine fast enough to bloom as well as grow.
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