Linum Blue Dress - Flax seeds

Linum grandiflorum 'Blue Dress' is a delightful, well-branched selection of Large-flowered Flax with delicate light blue flowers that blooms generously for several weeks between late spring and summer. It is an annual plant with a countryside appearance and character that easily self-seeds in the garden. Its flower-filled foliage dances in the wind, providing a beautiful backdrop for peonies or roses. It can be sown directly in well-drained, rich, and light soil.

Linum grandiflorum is a hardy annual plant from the linaceae family, native to North Africa. This plant has retained its tolerance of the summer heat and drought that characterizes the Mediterranean climate. Its life cycle allows it to germinate, grow, flower, and seed before the arrival of high temperatures in southern regions. In our more humid climates, it blooms tirelessly throughout the summer. The 'Blue Dress' variety was selected for the beautiful blue colour of its flowers. It forms a small upright clump with branching stems from the base, quickly reaching 45-50 cm (18-20in) high and 20-25 cm (8-10in) wide. Its small, thin, and lanceolate green leaves, have silver highlights. The flat and round cup-shaped flowers measure 3 to 4 cm (1 to 2in) in diameter, with sky-blue, satin-like petals and a small yellow heart. Each flower lasts only one day, but they renew themselves from early summer to autumn in moist soil. This plant readily self-seeds in light soils. 

The Large-flowered Flax 'Blue Dress' is a sun-loving plant that adapts to many climates. It can be directly sown in the ground in sunny flower beds or rockeries to create rustic scenes or natural areas with Damask Love-in-a-Mist, Ammi visnaga, or Californian poppies, among perennials or small bushes. Its blue flowers are charming next to the red, pink, or white spikes of Centranthus ruber. This annual plant also complements the swaying foliage of grasses such as Pennisetum, Stipa, or Muhlenbergia capillaris. It can be placed in borders, flower pots, or even meadows. Its lightness enhances the opulent flowers of peonies and roses, in the garden and in a vase.