No, flowers are different. It attracts scads of bees (a good thing). Love the shot of blue late in the season; mine usually start blooming toward late August/early September. A very worthy addition to the perennial beds. :0)

I really like caryopteris. Have found them to be a little touch and go in my garden. They had a rough winter and this year are quite a bit smaller but at least a couple did survive. Love the late bloom for the insects.

i really enjoy 'Snow Fairy' which gets cut back to the ground and is very reliable. Much larger plant, and the flowers are even smaller, so not at all like butterfly bush. I definitely grow it for the variegated foliage as opposed to the flowers.

Ditto mxk3's remarks. I have a handful of them in various beds in my efforts to sustain pollinators.

I also like Caryopteris. I have a gold-leafed shrub type, one silver-leafed shrub which struggles in bad winters, and the herbaceous C. divaricata which T2D mentions. I like the foliage on all of them, and the blue flowers are welcome at a time that is often slow for flowers in my garden.

I've grown caryopteris successfully in 5a. They can die back to the ground in winter if it gets really cold. How far the die back is, is totally dependent on the temperatures. One thing they don't like is wet feet. I lost a large one a few years ago as a result of standing water from melting snow. I love the foliage and late season blueish small blooms late in the season. They are pretty tolerant of dry conditions

Sherry

The variegated one, snow fairy, is a radiant spot of white and green by now. However, they leaf out really late. And the leaves smell really awful. So site it with some thought about how it will look until at least early May and whether people will brush it when walking by . Otherwise Along with the hydrangea paniculatas right now, it is stellar. In fact, in my garden that's a refreshing combination for the dog days of August.

These are high on my list to plant next year, so I'm reading this thread with great interest. I appreciate all the wisdom!

Caryopteris has not been hardy for me. I added extra protection to 'Snow Fairy' and it survived one winter but died the next winter. Other varieties have had the same result.

According to the information I've gleaned from the web, these are hardy only to Z5. I'm in Zone 6 southern New England and they do thrive in my garden beds.

Like other late bloomers plant them as early in the growing season as you can so they can develop a good root system well before winter. I forgot I lost 2 a few years ago because I bought them late in the season. They were, as to be expected, very pot bound. I didn't understand then how important it is to really loosen and open up the root mass. That, combined with late planting, was a recipe for failure. So buy a small plant early in the season and grow it on yourself.

Uh oh, maybe they are not good for our zone. darn. But better to know that now, thank you!

Thanks for all the info.

I like these plants and see nice ones in gardens in the neighbourhood. BUT - they will NOT grow for me! I've tried and tried.....! Snow Fairy came back one year, but disappeared the next. All the others never came back after their first winter, no matter where I tried them! I gave up a couple of years ago. Nice plants, but not tough enough for my garden! :-(

I planted 4 'Snow Fairy' two years ago and only one is still surviving today. And I just had to move it so I'm hoping it will still be there next year, because it really has a "cooling" effect visually. I have heavy clay soil and I have wondered if winter wet is why its not very reliable here.

karin_mt, you may be able to grow some of them. I have had C. 'Sunshine Blue' (shrubby) and 'Snow Fairy' (herbaceous) that have survived for a bunch of years, and we get to at least -20 to -23 most winters. I think that the key is that my soil is well-drained (deposits from a glacial lake) and so they never sit in damp soil. If you get reasonable snow cover, I'd give them a try. Woody has relatively clayish soil as does Greenhearted, so if you have decent drainage, with your drier climate I think they are worth a shot. One of the silvery leafed types has tested to zone 4 - I'll see if I can find which one and where I saw that info. Sunshine Blue II is supposed to be hardier that the original.

Edited to add: Chicago Botanical Garden says that 'Arthur Simmons' is the hardiest of they varieties that they tested (z 4) and while they may be the original source of my info, I can't find the testing data online.

Mountain States Wholesale Nursery says that C. 'Dark Knight' is zone 4 hardy.

Oh that is so helpful Babs, thank you! The spot where they'd go will be open for awhile so I'll see what our nurseries have in the spring. They carry one or two varieties but I haven't paid any attention until now. We have good drainage and plenty of snow cover, so that might help. I really appreciate your advice and the specific varieties to check out.