Evolvulus ‘Blue My Mind’

For summer bloom in a stunning shade of blue there is nothing like evolvulus. Although we admire the flowers for their exceptional blue color and all-summer performance, we don’t grow any of the species or the usual cultivars. Generally, the blooms are too sparse, the flowers are too tiny, or the plant is too unreliable for greenhouse production. ‘Blue My Mind’, however, is the first variety we’ve seen that buyers will actually want—it denotes a significant improvement to the genus.

A Proven Winners hybrid, ‘Blue My Mind’ loves the sun, blooming around late spring and throughout the summer. Its mature size is 6–8 inches, which makes it large for an evolvulus. That 6–8 inch zone, however, is a popular height for designers, and ‘Blue My Mind’ brings a unique clear-blue color that is simply hard to find in summer plants.

Many blue flowers are not really blue. They have hints of magenta that actually make them blue-purple. Scrubbing out that magenta is difficult to do genetically; in the natural world you won’t find very many true blue flowers without magenta in them.

Evolvulus is one of those few true blue cultivars that really delivers the blue. Proven Winners has taken up the breeding for this genus, beefing up the plant to improve both its height and volume so it will have some market viability.

Blooms are about the size of a nickel. Although the color coverage is average, it helps that the foliage is blanketed in a light silvery fuzz that adds texture and softens the plant overall. Since it grows in a mounded, trailing habit it works well in both containers and as a front-of-the-garden groundcover.

Evolvulus likes the heat. While it’s known for its full summer performance, remember that it is not drought-tolerant; it will need access to regular and reasonable watering during the summer dry spells.

Your customers might know this plant as a dwarf morning glory, but it has nothing to do with ipomeas at all. Frankly, we are not certain how it got that common name; ‘Heavenly Glory’ is a morning glory that is a true blue as well, but other than that the two plants look nothing like each other.