Bluebeard
Caryopteris x clandonensis
A low, airy shrub that brightens late summer and fall with clouds of fragrant blue flowers when little else blooms, crowded by butterflies and bees, over aromatic leaves. It's drought tolerant and seldom touched by deer. Cut it back hard in late winter, since it blooms on new growth, and give it lean soil that drains.
- Mature size
- 2 × 2 ft
- 0.6 × 0.6 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to moist
- Blooms
- Aug–Oct
Bluebeard at its mature size
A mature Bluebeard grows 2 feet tall and just as wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Monrovia.
Through the year
What Bluebeard looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare twiggy gray stems.
In leaf · Apr–Jul
Rounded mound of dull gray-green oval leaves, no flowers.
In flower · Aug–Sep
Deep purple-blue flower clusters in whorls along every upper stem.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Spent flower clusters brown on the stems, leaves still green with a slight silvery-gray cast; not flat gray.
Photos
Growing Bluebeard
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinators, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- China and Mongolia
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Bluebeard, that’s about 2 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Bluebeard in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.