“True Blue” is our claim about Captain Collingwood Ingram’s improvement on this species. Year after year, a generous showing of deep blue flowers adorns 15 in. leafy stems stretching above a tidy mass of green leaves. Larger than the species, these blossoms extend their display by fading to nostalgic violet tones.

Blooms April–June.

Size: 10" high x 15" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

Created by New Zealand’s noted breeder, Terry Hatch, ‘Joy Skies’ has wonderfully elegant and loose mounds of long, lancelike leaves arching gracefully downward. The charming open-faced flowers borne along trailing stems echo the intense azure of the summer sky. Star-shaped, light green calyxes add a colorful shimmer.

In our garden, we’ve backed it with the sunny sparkle of Hypericum kouytchense and the eye catching foliage of Spiraea ‘Ogon’.

Blooms April–July.

Size: 12" high x 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

And you thought you had to travel all the way to France to enjoy a Parisian sky! Enchanting, just like the cultivar name suggests, this Omphalodes hosts a profusion of blooms in luminous bleu d’azur hues above a leafy base of foliage. Bring European appeal to your woodland trail and try ‘Parisian Skies’ en masse with Pulmonaria ‘Excalibur’ nearby.

Blooms April–June.

Size: 10" high x 15" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

This stellar old favorite displays plentiful airy sprays of fetching Mediterranean blue flowers defined by illuminated white eyes and five spaced round-edged petals, each one with a deep blue interior and a pink rim that eventually matures to white. The dainty bicolored blooms sparkle above long-petioled, dark green leaves shaping an attractive bushy hummock. Irresistible when massed, ‘Starry Eyes’ can enchant the rockery, a shady planting or the woodland garden. A member of the Borage family, Omphalodes prefers moist soil, but will tolerate dry conditions when grown in shade.

Blooms April–June.

Size: 10" high x 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.