It is hard to find great plants with lots of bright blue flowers. Here we have a dwarf herbaceous perennial which flowers its head off. The bright blue of the Evolvulus flowers make a statement in frost free gardens around the world growing in warmer parts of Mediterranean gardens through the sub-tropics and tropical regions. This variety, ‘Blue My Mind’ which we are introducing here needs to be widely grown, it is so good. We have seen it growing and flowering in the shade of a northern wall in California and even in that shady spot and flowering its head off. ‘Blue My Mind’ is a dwarf herbaceous perennial that fills the areas in mixed gardens that are trouble spots.
Any garden whether it is a private one or a commercial landscape needs attention to detail. These plants are fast growing to 30cm with a similar spread. One of the other commercial Evolvulus is ‘Blue Sapphire’ which has been around the trade for many years and is widely planted in warmer areas. In planter pots and gardens where a shorter plant is desired ‘Blue My Mind’ is worthy of consideration. Flowers are bright blue and are 1cm to 1.5cm in diameter. Attention to watering is needed to keep the media evenly moist but attention to good drainage is necessary for good results. Any well prepared garden in sun to semi-shade should be a suitable area to plant your new treasure.
It is important to prepare the garden with rotting animal manure or well prepared composts. When planting in a garden pot use good media. Once you have planted your ‘Blue My Mind’ mulch the plant to around 5cm keeping the area around the plants main stem clear of the mulch. Water in well and keep moist until the plant is well established. We find that a regular application of slow release fertiliser every eight to ten weeks is beneficial. Light pruning at any time of the year can keep your ‘Blue My Mind’ in trim.
Evolvulus ‘Blue My Mind’ is a hybrid variety from breeding programmes in Japan and California. It is only in recent years that breeding has been done, before this species were sometimes planted around native gardens. The leaves develop in hairy shoots but soon lose this and become bright green, small and almost round. The flowers are borne terminally in head-like clusters being freshest in the morning. The following day new flowers appear on the same branch. The various species used in the programme come from the West Indies and northern areas of South America down into Brazil.