【Garden】Pulmonaria 'Blue 'Ensign'

(2015/04/26)
Pulmonaria angustifolia 'Blue 'Ensign'. 

They say it has the darkest blue flowers of any pulmonaria.

Its leaves are non-spotted and vivid green.

Its flowers are large and stems are long.

My first bought and most loved pulmonaria.

April 8th, while cherry blossoms were blooming in Tokyo, it snowed here.
It's noting surprising nor special.
We live in Tateshina highlands, at an altitude of 1160 meters.

(2015/04/08)
The north end of our garden 
faces National Route 299

(2015/04/08)
A persian mixed cat: Gwenhwyfar

The next day: April 9th was sunny and warm.
Spring ephemerals in the garden didn't mind that spring snowfall at all. Their petals were so tough not to get any damage from such a mild spring coldness.

To my joy, those cute small flowers are very hardy. They can survive even in USDA plant hardiness zone 3 ( to -39.9 °C (-40 °F ))winter. 
I used to think this area is in Zone 6b ( to -20.5 °C ( -5 °F )) but actually it is only in Zone 7a ( to -17.7 °C (0 °F )).

7a!!!

No problem. It's warm!
Very warm!

(2015/04/09)
Scilla siberica in snow.
The contrast of blue and white is beautiful

(2015/04/09)

Also in snow, Puschkinia libanotica

(2015/04/09)
Muscari azureum
It makes me glad knowing this Muscari azureum
is hardy enough in this area.
Last autumn, I couldn't find the hardiness data of it
and planted 10 bulbs for trial .

(2015/04/09)
And Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign' in snow

(2015/04/09)
It's not easy to reproduce the colors of blue flowers in photos.
I can say having been challenging to this difficult task for years 
 made my Photoshop skill increased.
And how hard I try, every time I realize I'm no match for reality.

Pulmonarias are not popular in Japanese gardens. They seem to be just recently introduced in Japan. They don't naturally live in East Asia.

 (2015/04/12)
'Blue Ensign's Flower buds 
are deep pink

 (2015/04/12)
They start blooming in violet-pink 
then soon change the color to violet-blue

 (2015/04/26)
Finally they turn into brilliant cobalt-blue

About ten years ago, I bought a 'Blue Ensign' from a nursery in Nagano-ken, (Ogihara Syokubutsuen ) and planted it in the border garden which I made in my parents' property in Tochigi-ken(elevation:400m).

I hadn't seen a real one.
I just saw it's picture and ordered it. I was half in doubt.

The next spring, I danced with joy on seeing 'Blue Ensign' was really blooming in blue.

What blue it was! 

There were many flowers called "blue" and most of them were sadly false.
But 'Blue Ensign''s blue was true.
Like blue delphiniums, cornflowers or gentians.

Cobalt blue? Medium blue? Or marine blue? What was the name of its blue?

When it started blooming first, it made me disappointed for its flowers seemed rather purple. But after they completely bloomed, they revealed to be deep and pure blue which didn't have any tint of red. And their petals were somewhat shining reflecting sunlight like diamond lilies.

I was just gazing and content.
So beautiful and delightful.

  (2015/04/26)
Young heucheras around 'Blue Ensign's

(2015/04/26)
There are only blue flowers blooming
 in this shady garden. 
But how colorful view it is!

Now 'Blue Ensign's are quite outstanding in the shade garden which I newly made in the last autumn. There are only blue flowers blooming at this moment. But Many kind of yellow orange red and purple colors come into the sight. They are heucheras and heucherellas.

Recently heucheras ( and heucherellas ) became popular in Japan, so you can easily buy many kind of them in every DIY stores and they got much cheeper than before. 

After the last april snow disappeared, I added young heucheras among 'Blue Ensign's. 

While the heucheras which I planted last autumn were still wearing old drub leaves, those new-faces showed off their brand-new leaves.