Plants with blue leaves are rare and unique – they include Agave tequilana and creeping blue blossom.
The blue flowers truly stand out and increase the visual intensity of the garden. Which plants have blue foliage and what is the reason behind the blue color? Keep reading to find out all your answers.
Contents
A List of Beautiful Plants With Blue Leaves
The blue color in plants is due to a few different reasons. One explanation for their bluish-silver color is the presence of cutin in the leaves.
The other is delayed greening, which can occur in various plant species. Although blue foliage isn’t widespread, plants can produce it through light wave absorption and reflection since they lack a true blue pigment.
1. Agave Tequilana
Agave tequilana, commonly known as blue agave, is native to Mexico’s arid highlands. It is a fleshy succulent farmed commercially in Mexico as the primary ingredient of tequila . It grows over a 6 feet tall large rosette of meaty, thick leaves. Each leaf has a pointed end.
This cultivar is large and gives off a bluish-gray color. Any outdoor space can benefit from having agave plants as its centerpiece. They are simple to cultivate indoors in containers. These arid-area plants are unquestionably among the best architectural plants that may improve the curb appeal of any house. Check out our list of Agave-like plants and how to identify them!
– Growing Season
The ideal seasons to plant agaves outside are early spring or early fall. The steps below can help you add agave to your garden. Garden space should be cleared. Approximately twice as broad as the plant’s original container should be the size of the hole you dig.
– Specific Needs
It is well known that this plant requires proper drainage from rain and watering. Although the full sun is perfectly fine, light shade is ideal. Because too much dampness might promote decay, they prefer low humidity. Agave doesn’t require fertilizer, not even for young plants.
Water the plant every 4-5 days for the first month or two. Agaves only require watering once or twice a month once they have established, or more frequently if you live in a low desert area.
2. Creeping Blue Blossom
The plant, known by its scientific name Ceanothus thyrsiflorus var. repens, is a spreading shrub with glossy, evergreen leaves. This species produces an excellent groundcover plant thanks to its robust, low, and spreading growth habit.
Intensely packed arrangements of masses of light powder blue flowers give an exotic look wherever grown. This plant serves as ground covers with beautiful, attractive flowers.
– Growing Season
This plant, which blooms in the late autumn, supplies green, high-quality feed in the summer and the fall, continuing into the early winter until frost. It flowers profusely in the spring and is dense enough to deter most weeds.
– Specific Needs
It can tolerate some clay but favors loamy, sandy, draining, and moist soil. Although this creeping plant can thrive in slightly acidic and alkaline soils, it grows best in soil with a neutral pH level. This plant needs to be well-watered in hot, dry weather because it is drought-sensitive.
3. Creeping Blue Sedum
The botanical name for this plant is sedum sieboldii, commonly known as the stonecrops plant. This plant has a striking combination of blue and pink leaves. It also blooms gorgeous flowers. Its thick, rounded leaves blend blue-gray with pink borders that intensify in the summer.
These slow-growing plants, renowned for their propensity to spread swiftly, prevent weeds from taking root.
– Growing Season
The best time to plant sedum is spring after the last frost. In the winter season, the foliage turns pink. Pink blooms with flat heads grow on eight stalks in the late summer.
– Specific Needs
Sedums can grow in the worst soil, and they prefer it since it drains well. However, even the poorest soil can support sedum growth. A sedum will be rapidly killed by excessive wetness, especially standing water, which will accomplish what no drought can.
Sedum thrives in full to partial sunlight. While creeping varieties can thrive in partial shade, taller hybrids require full light for the finest flowering. They prefer a neutral pH range to extremely well-drained and slightly alkaline soil. Root and stem rot can result from wet, heavy clay.
4. Cebu Blue Pothos
This plant, known by its botanical name Epipremnum pinnatum, is a distinctive type of pothos highly prized for its exquisite foliage. It is native to the Philippine island of Cebu. This beautiful pothos, whose thin, silvery blue-green leaves are its defining feature, is pleasantly simple to maintain inside.
– Growing Season
If you can provide your pothos with the ideal circumstances to develop in, they can grow quite quickly – up to 18 inches each month – during the growing season, which runs from December to May. Pothos can significantly over the spring and summer – they can actually grow a few feet.
– Specific Needs
Pothos enjoy 4 – 6 hours a day of bright, indirect light. They can’t survive in low light settings for extended periods. Use only indirect light because direct sunlight will also soon burn the foliage. Your Cebu plant should ideally be kept in a space with windows that face either east or west.
5. Philodendron hastatum
Philodendron, also known as the silver sword philodendron, is famous for its broad dazzling leaves. It has an intimidating visual appeal but is simple to grow.
The philodendron plant features a gorgeous set of glossy leaves with a silver sheen and blue tinge, almost giving out a metallic look. It is considered a climbing vine, probably aided by its thick stems. Hence, it’s often raised with a trellis or a moss pole for support.
– Growing Season
The ideal growing season for this plant is spring and summer. Philodendrons develop quickly. These plants grow more quickly and produce larger leaves when given a sturdy surface to climb on.
– Specific Needs
Being a tropical plant, philodendron naturally enjoys dampness. Therefore, during its growing season, which is in the spring and summer, it has to be watered at least twice a week. But bear in mind that this plant, like other philodendrons, goes dormant in the fall and winter.
6. Blue Hosta
Hosta plants have stunning, eye-catching foliage and classy, tubular flowers. Due to their low maintenance requirements and, more crucially, the fact that they thrive in shady environments, they are a well-liked option among gardeners. The waxy protective covering that the plant produces gives the leaves of hostas their distinctive color.
– Growing Season
Technically, any period of the year can be used to plant this plant. However, spring and autumn are ideal for giving them a solid start. The optimal time to cultivate hostas is in the spring or early summer to give divided plants the much-needed boost.
– Specific Needs
The Hosta genus often prefers dappled shade all day long. They are, therefore, perfect for awkward spaces beneath trees. They can also flourish in locations that get chilly morning or afternoon sun. They favor dependably damp soil that is not soggy.
Conclusion
Plants with leaves of common blue color are attractive and serve an exotic visual appeal. They can be grown indoors and outdoors and survive various soil and climate conditions.
You would surely want to grow some exotic blue shrubs, so make sure you remember these points:
- If you want to grow indoor plants with blue leaves, you can choose agave, sedum, pothos, or philodendron.
- If you prefer plants with blue foliage and blossoms, hosta is the gorgeous plant that can fit your choice.
- The blue color helps plants get energy from the sun, so keeping them in a sunny location is always recommended.
Blue flora is an attractive choice for people who love a pop of color in their green gardens – which one do you like?
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