Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue'

Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue'

Closeup of Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue'

Calllistemon viridiflorus

     I have previously posted about my favorite eryngiums--Eryngium 'Blue Jackpot' and Eryngium alpinum.  I like those the best because their flowers are the biggest and most spectacular of the eryngiums.  Two others which are almost as good are Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue', which I am blogging about today, and Eryngium 'Big Blue' which I will have a post on tomorrow. 
     I got Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue' at least 10 years ago and have been growing it in my front border ever since.  Like all the eryngiums I have ever grown (and I think I have grown all of them at one time or another), it is drought tolerant and deer resistant.  Sapphire Blue has also proved to be an easy plant to grow and very tolerant of being crowded by other plants.  This is a little different than Eryngium alpinum which is somewhat more finicky.  The flowers are not a big as those of alpinum, but they do have more of the soft ruff, although not to the same extent, which I like so much in alpinum.  As you will see tomorrow, Big Blue does not have this same softness. 
     I have Sapphire Blue growing by and in the skirts of Callistemon viridiflorus, an Australian shrub which is the plant in the third picture above.  This shrub is a rather ungainly one, but it has proven absolutely hardy here which cannot be said of all the callistemons that I have grown.  I am showing it here so that you can see that Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue' and Callistemon viridiflorus make a good combination since they bloom at the same time, and they are both drought tolerant and deer resistant.
     Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue' is fairly commonly found in retail nurseries, and failing that it is available at many mail order nurseries.  For example, I notice that it is listed in the catalogue for Digging Dog.