8 BLUE Wildflowers Found in Alberta! (ID GUIDE)
Did you find a BLUE wildflower in Alberta?
If so, I’m sure you’re wondering what type of wildflower you found! Luckily, you can use this guide to help you identify it. 🙂
Today, we will look at 8 common BLUE wildflowers in Alberta.
#1. Heal-All
- Prunella vulgaris
Also known as Common Self-heal, Woundwort, Heart-of-the-earth, Carpenter’s Herb, Brownwort, or Blue Curls.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-12″ (15-30cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Late Fall
- Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade
This blue wildflower is one of the most common in Alberta.
You will find this purplish-blue wildflower on roadsides, gardens, and on the edge of woodlands.
You can even EAT Heal-all! Some people use it in salads, soups, stews, or boiled as a potherb. In addition, this mint plant has been used by many cultures to treat various physical ailments such as herpes, skin lesions, and throat remedies.
This plant attracts butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. As a result, it is often used as a ground cover on border fronts, meadows, and naturalized landscapes.
#2. Bachelor’s Button
- Centaurea cyanus
Also known as Cornflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 2-4
- Life Cycle: Annual
- Approximate mature size: 1-3′ (30-90cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Late Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun to Light Shade
I think this is one of the prettiest blue wildflowers in Alberta.
This common plant is a magnet for butterflies. In addition, it’s excellent for cutting and drying.
The Bachelor’s Button flowers are daisy-like and virtually pest and disease-free. And can you believe they are also deer and drought tolerant?! I recommend this easy-to-grow plant for borders of flower beds or rock gardens.
#3. Chicory
- Cichorium intybus
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-10
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-4′ (30-120 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
This non-native blue wildflower is found throughout Alberta. Typically you will find this plant where it’s sunny and dry, so look for it along roads and open fields.
The exciting thing about Chicory is it is eatable. The leaves are high in vitamins and minerals. You can eat the leaves as a vegetable or in a salad, but beware, they are very bitter tasting. The roots can also be boiled and eaten with butter. Sometimes the root is roasted and ground as a substitute or additive to coffee.
Interestingly, Chicory flowers only bloom for ONE day. And in hot weather, the flower may only be open for a few hours!
#4. Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass
- Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Also known as Bermuda Blue-eyed Grass and Blue-eyed Grass.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-11
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-20″ (10-50 cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Early Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
This blue wildflower is widespread and found throughout Alberta. You will typically see this plant in moist meadows, damp fields, open woods, floodplain forests, sandy thickets, riverbanks, and roadsides.
The Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass is an excellent source of nectar and pollen. This makes this plant good for attracting butterflies, bees, and other insects. It also can attract songbirds because many birds eat these perennial seeds.
#5. Creeping Bellflower
- Campanula rapunculoides
Also known as Rampion Bellflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-7
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 12-31″ (30-80cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer to Early Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Shade
You will find this perennial in a variety of habitats, such as fields, dry hills, meadows, deciduous and pine forests, roadsides, and along railroads.
Creeping Bellflower is native to Europe and western Siberia, brought to Alberta. Unfortunately, it has become an extremely invasive weed and chokes out other plants.
Trying to eliminate it is nearly impossible because of its ability to multiply on its own. Each plant can produce 15,000 seeds and reproduce through its long tuberous root system. 🙁
#6. Blue Flag Iris
- Iris versicolor
Also known as Harlequin Blue Flag, Larger Blue Flag, Northern Blue Flag, and Poison Flag.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-7
- Life Cycle: Perennial, Aquatic Plant
- Approximate mature size: 2-3′ (60-90 cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring, Early Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
You will see this blue wildflower in Alberta along wetlands, sedge meadows, stream banks, and rivers.
Please take note! The Blue Flag Iris leaves, and roots are poisonous and cause stomach and intestinal inflammation. If you, your livestock, or a pet consumes this plant, please seek medical attention.
#7. Western Blue Flax
- Linum lewisii
Also known as Prairie Flax, Wild Flax, Lewis Flax, Lewis’s Flax, and Wild Blue Flax.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-3′ (30-90 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
The Western Blue Flax blooms for weeks from late spring to mid-summer, but you will notice the flowers open in the morning but are gone in the afternoon. This is because the blooms only last for one day!
This blue perennial has long and tough stem fibers, and the American Indians used them for ropes, cords, fishing lines, and nets.
#8. Pasque flower
- Pulsatilla patens
Also known as Prairie Pasqueflower, Eastern Pasque Flower, Eastern Meadow Anemone, Eastern Prairie Smoke, American Pasqueflower, Prairie Crocus, and Windflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: All Life Zones
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-10″ (10-25 cm)
- Bloom Time: Early Spring
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Please advise all parts of the Pasque Flower contain poisonous compounds, which can cause blisters in your nose and mouth. This is one wildflower you don’t want to sniff!
This blue-flowered perennial is found in dry soil such as prairies. It also has seed-like fruit with feathery, plume-like hairs that carry seeds away on the wind.
Do you need more help identifying blue wildflowers in Alberta?
Check out this guide!
Which of these blue wildflowers have you seen before in Alberta?
Leave a comment below!
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