Butterflies, Bumblebees, and Blue Blossoms in The Gardens

Blue . . . one of the most difficult colors to include in a garden, and especially in large amounts that bloom for longer periods of time to enjoy!  And who doesn't love the color of blue?

I've got blue iris that bloom for about a week and a half in the spring, little blue pansies in the winter that you can barely see, some Russian sage, and a few blue hydrangea that I can't grow further than a few inches with the hungry deer out here in the countryside.

So for this "Wordless Wednesday", which I am now officially re-naming "A Walk in The Gardens Wednesday" (at least on my blogs that's what I'm going to focus my Wednesdays on), I'm focusing on the color of blue in our gardens!  While outside mowing the front pasture this afternoon before the rains set in, I was just staring at these huge, awesome, and completely-covered-with-blue-blossom bushes, and had this little 'a ha' moment for today's post.

These beautiful perennial blue bushes grow larger every year, are incredibly carefree (well you might want to give them some nice fertilizer food twice a month like I do to keep them extra happy and blooming), THRIVE in the heat and drought, require minimal watering, are deer resistant (YAY!) and attract butterflies and bumblebees to 'healthily' your gardens even more!

About four years ago, we lined our very long driveway with these blue floral bushes mixed with taller pink crepe myrtle trees and some green 'adiago' grasses (also beginning to bloom right now . . . but that's another garden post).  All heat and drought lovers!  And when you live on an acreage with a 'well', you have to be ever-so-careful with your water use!

Everyone asks me:  what is the name of those bushes?  "Blue Mist Shrubs" aka: "Caryopteris".  You can buy these guys in small pots in a specialty nursery (not Lowe's, Home Depot, or WalMart) for around $5.00 or so.  THEY GROW FAST, so don't worry!  The second year of bloom is mind-boggling with how fast and how large they grow with so many blue blooms.  They reach about 4 to 5 feet tall and so you need to plant them at least 3 feet apart, a point at which they will grow together into a lovely hedge!

PLUS, when summer is ending and everything else in your garden has finished blooming, except for those annuals that we plant for color, these bushes just show off among the greenery, along with the flowering crepe myrtles!

Only a few negatives:  They lose their leaves in the winter because they are woody bushes, not evergreen.  Plus, as a good gardener, you need to cut them back in the spring just like you would do with your ornamental grasses so that they have a healthy growth in the coming summer season.

But let me tell you, they are so worth it!  I look forward to these blue blooms at the end of every summer before everything turns yellow, gold, orange, and red in fall.

This is just one of summer's 'last hurrah' in the gardens!

one bumblebee so drunk in happiness, he's upside down!

we have these bushes mixed in with our pink crepe myrtle trees (for height).  

This little crepe myrtle is 3 years old that we planted at just about 2 feet tall 

-- the deer made it difficult to get them to this height, but with patience, 

they will continue to grow and fill out!

blue, blue, blue . . . covered with blue blossoms!

a BIG THANK YOU to the editors of "Bon Bon Break" an on-line e-magazine for featuring this post in their publication which you can find by clicking on this link!

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