16 BLUE Wildflowers Found in Manitoba! (ID GUIDE)
Did you find a BLUE wildflower in Manitoba?
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 16 common BLUE wildflowers in Manitoba.
#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 Manitoba.
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 Manitoba.
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. 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 Manitoba. 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.
#4. Blue Vervain
- Verbena hastata
Also known as the American Vervain or Swamp Verbena.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 2-5′ (60-150cm)
- Bloom Time: Early Summer-Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Look for this hardy and drought-resistant wildflower in plains, foothills, wet soils, ditches, shores, wet fields, and roadsides in Manitoba.
The Blue Vervain attracts native bees, honeybees, beneficial wasps, small butterflies, skippers, and moths. It is also a great host plant because the Verbena Moth and the Common Buckeye Butterfly caterpillars feed on the leaves.
#5. Common Blue Violet
- Viola sororia
Also known as Common Meadow Violet, Purple Violet, Woolly Blue Violet, Hooded Violet, and Wood Violet.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-10
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-10″ (15-25cm)
- Bloom Time: Mid-Spring-Late Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
Some people consider this beautiful blue wildflower a weed in Manitoba!
Believe it or not, the Common Blue Violet can randomly start growing in the middle of your lawn. If it appears, it can attract mason bees, caterpillars, wild turkeys, rabbits, deer, doves, and ants. The ants are attracted to their seeds that are coated with protein.
Interestingly, this wildflower can self-fertilize inside the plant without opening. The seed capsules eventually turn upright, open, and SHOOT OUT their seeds as far as 9 feet away from the plant.
#6. Common Periwinkle
- Vinca minor
Also known as Lesser Periwinkle or Dwarf Periwinkle.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-6″ (10-15cm)
- Bloom Time: Year-Round
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun, Shade
The Common Periwinkle is not native to North America. Regardless, this perennial can attract bumblebees, Anthophorid Bees, Mason Bees, and bee flies.
- RELATED: 22 PROVEN Flowers That Attract BEES!
This blue wildflower is often used as a ground cover in Manitoba. The main benefit is it’s deer resistant!
#7. 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 Manitoba. 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. 🙁
#8. Blue Moon (Wild Blue Phlox)
- Phlox divaricata
Also known as Woodland Phlox, Sweet William’ Blue Moon’.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 10-20″ (25-50 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun
This fragrant blue wildflower has beautiful rich white or blue flowers, and its stems are often hairy and sticky to the touch.
The Blue Moon would be an excellent accent to your flower beds and borders. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds and are deer resistant.
- RELATED: 28 Common Flowers That Attract HUMMINGBIRDS (Add to your yard TODAY!)
#9. 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 Manitoba 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.
#10. 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.
#11. Round-lobed Hepatica
- Anemone Americana
Also known as Roundleaf Liverleaf, Anemone Americana, American Liverwort, Liverleaf, and Anemone Hepatica.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-6″ (10-15 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun
This blue wildflower is found in Manitoba’s dry shade of deciduous woods.
Look at each basal leaf with three round lobes rising from its thin hairy stalk to help identify it.
The Round-lobed Hepatica is rich in nectar and is an important food source for many pollinators. As the pollinated flowers lengthen and droop toward the ground, ants collect and disperse the seeds.
#12. Virginia Waterleaf
- Hydrophyllum virginianum
Also known as Eastern Waterleaf.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-2′ (30-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring
- Sun Exposure: Shade, Partial Shade
The Virginia Waterleaf forms large groups in moist deciduous forests and spreads by reproducing along with underground roots (rhizomes).
This perennial attracts sweat bees and flies. But, unfortunately, their foliage is nibbled on by deer.
#13. Bottle Gentian
- Gentiana andrewsii
Also known as Closed Bottle Gentian and Closed Gentian.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-7
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-2′ (30-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun
Look for this blue wildflower in prairies, along railroads, and in old fields in Manitoba.
You can grow the Bottle Gentian in your garden, but please do not dig it up from the wild.
This beautiful plant is known for its bottle-shaped flowers and always remains closed. One may wonder how they get pollinated? Bumblebees can force their way inside! Check out the video!
#14. Large-leaved Aster
- Eurybia macrophylla
Also known as Bigleaf Aster, Large-leaved Wood Aster, Aster roscidus, and Aster violaris.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-5′ (30-150 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun, Shade
This blue wildflower is found in Manitoba’s dry shade of deciduous forests.
You will notice their large, heart-shaped basal leaves, which are soft to the touch; their stalks are sticky.
This blue wildflower blooms for weeks, and the flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies.
#15. Prairie Spiderwort
- Tradescantia occidentalis
Also known as Western Spiderwort and Spiderwort.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 10-24″ (25-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun, Shade
This grass-like plant with exotic-looking blue flowers is found in Manitoba’s plains, foothills, sandy ridges, meadows, fields, and roads.
The Prairie Spiderwort blooms continuously with eye-catching blue flowers. Unfortunately, most flowers are gone by noon. Nevertheless, many native bees value this wildflower.
#16. 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 Manitoba?
Check out this guide!
Which of these blue wildflowers have you seen before in Manitoba?
Leave a comment below!
-
RELATED: The 21 MOST Common BIRDS in Manitoba! (w/ pics)
-
RELATED: 24 Types of BUTTERFLIES in Manitoba! (ID Guide)
