Linum lewisii

Identification

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Description

A 2-3 foot perennial with delicate leaves and true blue sky flowers from Mar. to Sept.. Native to middle to high elevations, Alaska to southern California. A good garden flower. Showy, every morning it covers itself with 1" blue flowers, hundreds per day. The leaves themselves stay at 18" or so but the flowers arise above making a total arching display 3' or so high. Use in perennial garden, rock garden, or even in a container. In areas where the snow is on the ground until March to June this plant will flower all summer. I've seen it in the snow fields and in dry rocky sunny sites at 6000-8000'. In San Diego it is at about 3000 ft on a rocky south facing slope mixed with Diplacus Clevlandii and Brodiaea. It has done well within sight of the ocean and ok in the desert as long as it gets watering. This is another plant that doesn't behave as you would think. It survived up in our garden with no water for two seasons in full sun, flowering its little heart out each morning from late March until mid-July. The reason it did not get water is the drought (11" one year and 5" the next) did not allow us to use any. In the garden it does need to be trimmed down each winter.