By B. Rosie Lerner
Photo by Mike Dana, Purdue Horticulture & Landscape Architecture
To celebrate Indiana’s bicentennial this year, the Garden Club of Indiana and the Indiana Bicentennial Commission are hoping gardeners will join the Blue & Gold garden tribute to Indiana’s state flag. It’s an easy way for all Indiana residents to commemorate the bicentennial. If you don’t have a traditional garden bed, there are many fine choices for container gardens.
There’s a vast array of garden flowers that can fit in the blue-and-gold theme. Some “blue” flowers are more purple than blue and, likewise, some “gold” flowers are more yellow. Most annual flowers will bloom throughout the growing season.
The following flowers can be grown throughout the state. All are full-sun plants unless otherwise noted.
Annuals with Blue Flowers
(Note: Some may be purplish blue.)
Ageratum
Alyssum
Anagallis
Angelonia
Aster
Bacopa
Borage
Brachyscome (swan river daisy)
Browalia (semi-shade)
Calibrachoa
Callistephus (China aster)
Cornflower
Felicia (blue daisy)
Forget-Me-Not
Heliotrope
Limonium (annual statice)
Lisianthus
Lobelia (semi-shade)
Mimulus (shade)
Morning Glory
Nemesia
Nicotiana
Nierembergia (semi-shade)
Nigella
Pansy
Petunia
Phlox
Salvia
Scaevola (fan flower)
Sweet Pea
Torenia
Verbena
Yellow/Gold-Flowered Annuals
African Daisy
Begonia, Tuberous (semi-shade, shade)
Bidens
Calendula
Calibrachoa
California Poppy
Coreopsis
Cape Marigold
Celosia
Coleus (some with yellow foliage)
Cosmos
Dahlia
Four O’Clock
Gaillardia
Gazania
Gerbera
Iresine (some with yellow foliage)
Lantana
Marguerite Daisy
Marigold
Melampodium
Mimulus
Nasturtium (semi-shade)
Nemesia
Nicotiana
Pansy
Petunia
Portulaca
Rudbeckia
Sanvitalia
Snapdragon
Strawflower
Sunflower
Thunbergia
Tithonia
Torenia
Zinnia
For more information on Indiana’s bicentennial activities, see www.indianagardenclub.org/ and www.in.gov/ibc/.
For more information on annuals, see Purdue Extension: hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-99W.pdf and hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-080.pdf.
Rosie Lerner is the Purdue Extension consumer horticulturist and a consumer of Tipmont REMC. Questions about gardening issues may be sent to: “Ask Rosie,” Electric Consumer, P.O. Box 24517, Indianapolis, IN 46224, orec@ElectricConsumer.org
