For those that want a nice spread of colour or are designing a garden with a colour scheme in mind then here is my top 10 list of tough and reliable plants that have blue flowers. The plants with the most members that have blue flowers belong to the Goodeniace family. These include members mainly from the Dampiera and Scaevola genus. As you can see from the below list 6/10 of my favorite blue flowered WA native plants are from the Goodeniaceae. A little botanical knowledge can unlock a wealth of desirable information as plants from the same family quite often have the desirable traits that you are looking for.

1.    Scaevola nitida (Goodeniaceae) (small compact shrub) (tough)
2.    Scaevola porocarya (Goodeniaceae) (open small spreading shrub) (tough)
3.    Dampiera coronata (Goodeniaceae) (spreading ground cover) (tough)
4.    Dampiera linearis (Goodeniaceae) (spreading ground cover) (tough)
5.    Scaevola crassifolia (Goodeniaceae) (small to medium shrub) (tough)
6.    Orthosanthus laxus – Morning iris (Iridaceae) (clumping ground cover) (part shade)
7.    Lobelia anceps (Campanulaceae) (retic part shade) (pots)
8.    Trachymene coerulea (Blue lace flower) (Araliaceae) (annual)(seed)
9.    Eryngium sp. (Blue Devils) (Apiaceae) (annual)(seed)
10.    Lechenaultia biloba – Blue lechenaultia (Goodeniaceae)(ground cover)(extra summer water)

Plants listed as tough can take exposed full sun conditions and some can take coastal conditions like Scaevola crassifolia, Scaevola nitida, Scaevola porocarya which area found growing naturally along the WA coastline.

Other plants will need extra water in summer such as Orthansanthus laxus, Lobelia anceps and Lechenaulita biloba and a more sheltered position depending on the shade in your garden.  Lobelia anceps is an exceptional hanging basket plant and loves being watered every day in a pot.

Plants such as the Dampiera are fantastic as they spread from underground rhizomes(roots) and bit like couch grass does so even if they die off or die back due to no extra summer water as soon as the winter rains arrive and it gets cooler a gen these plants will continue to come back to life and spread and form a beautiful blue/green carpet.

Annual plants usually are grown from seed and this means you need to spread the seed at the right time and usually it is just before the first true winter rains arrive. There are many seed suppliers around Perth or online where you can get a range of annual native seed.

Please visit Australian native nursery and Zanthorrea for access to these beautiful WA plants. 

Contact Ben’s gardens for help designing and installing your new or existing native landscape.