Linum lewisii  

Blue Flax is one of the most beautiful all-blue flowering plants, with narrow blue-green leaves on graceful 2' tall stems. This native wildflower offers profuse displays of tiny, satiny, sky-blue, or lavender-to-white flowers each morning from early to late summer.

Easy to grow and quick to establish, it will be flush with blooms starting its second year. It grows from expanding clumps of stalks with 1/2 - 1 "wide flowers. It produces a continual profusion of colors that lasts a day, with new ones appearing each morning. Veins of darker blue often showcase delicate flower petals.

Organic agriculture uses blue flax to attract and increase beneficial insect diversity and bring nutrients back to the topsoil and into the shallow root zone.
Very adaptable and tolerant of drought, heat, and cold weather.

This species is named "lewisii" in honor of Meriwether Lewis of Lewis & Clark since located on their expedition across the plains. Native to western North America, it is found in Alaska south to Baja California and the Pacific Coast east to the Mississippi River.

It attracts smaller bees, including solitary bees and many species of butterflies, and the seeds and capsules are a food source for birds in fall and winter. The root systems help stabilize soil, reduce erosion, and improve the ground by mobilizing phosphorus and adding organic matter—a source of flax fiber, flaxseed, and linseed oil.

BONAP MAP

Height: 2’-3'
Spread: 1’-2' 
Bloom:  May-September
Light: Full Sun, Part Sun
Water: Low
Zone:  3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Origin: Western ¾ U.S.