PlantFiles: Blue corydalis
Corydalis elata

Utterly delightful, but rather taller than I was expecting after growing other corydalis of more diminutive stature. Mine is about 2 1/2 ft. and magnificent, growing in rich soil with afternoon shade on a fairly sunny north side of the house (About 6 hrs full sun midday in summer.) It's increased in size at least 3x since it's purchase last spring. I love the scarlet hued stems and dotting on the leaves. The flowers are rich, intense TRUE cobalt BLUE! A hard to find colour indeed. Blooms June-Sept- If you like dicentras you'll love this plant. Does not self seed readily, (but I hope it will try this year.)

I added this plant to my garden a couple of years ago (in 2004), and it's made it through the winter successfully every year since. A truly lovely plant, it's foliage is as attractive as the flowers. I successfully propagated a couple of plants this year from it's seed - which made me very happy since it was a "one time deal" from the nursery I originally got it from.

I tried (unsuccessfully) a few times to grow various Corydalis flexuosa varieties. I had almost given up on ever having the blue flowers of Corydalis until I tried elata. I am thrilled! I planted mine last year, and it survived and is now blooming. I am always in search of hardy perennials with truly blue flowers. (My definition of blue is significantly narrower than the one used by many catalogs and books.) I have found a winner here!

Very delicate. Leaves are lacy and grow in triplets, similar to Columbine.

Fragrant cobalt blue. Blooms May-June with shade.
Rich moist soil. Does not grow dormant and is more upright than other types.