Bluebeard Shrubs for Your Landscape
The pretty shrub, Bluebeard, is also known as a Blue Mist Shrub and Blue Spirea. The name bluebeard comes from the bluish green foliage it sports all summer long. It is a perennial, requires full sun and a moderate climate. This lovely shrub produces bright blue flowers and blooms in late summer all the way to the first frost.
In hardiness zones 5 to 9 ( You can check your hardiness zone here at the bottom of this page )this shrub grows slowly, but surely, to produce a delightful array of little blue flowers. This shrub mounds and is a wonderful specimen to use in groups through out the sunny areas of your landscape. The mounded shrub grows to a low two to three foot height. Tiny black berries that come to the plant in the fall attract hummingbirds, bees and other small creatures. This pretty bush is able to attract bees so well that one should not plant it near a walkway, for the bees get quite aggressive about their source of nectar.
The Bluebeard is a hybrid cross and does not produce seed of its own. In order to obtain new plants one should purchase starts that are potted. This plant is resistant to disease and insect infestations and is quite hardy in the right location. Rich organic soil keeps this shrub very happy but it is adaptable to other, less rich soils as well.
As mentioned before, find a sunny area to plant this little shrub in and mulch it quite well to help retain moisture. The root ball should be planted approximately two feet down in a hole that will allow the roots to be spread out. Water the plant well when planting in order to lessen the shock of being transplanted. Mulching will help the moisture stay where it belongs and deter weeds from taking over the planting spot while the plant shoots roots into the soil. The mulch is also a good way to keep the roots cool.
Maintenance for this pretty shrub is minimal. You would want to give it a good feeding
in the spring with a half cup of fertilizer. Too much fertilizer is not good for
this shrub; it will hinder the growth and possibly kill the root system. In the late
winter the shrub should be trimmed down to the ground. That is all there is to taking
care of this little guy. Come spring, the new shoots will come up with the blue-
As a landscape addition, these shrubs will fill in a small area when planted as a
group. The bluebeard shrub is a wonderful addition to a blue themed garden. Cutting
blooms back as they fade will stir this little shrub into re-
Caution: Too much fertilizer (and too much nitrogen ) will encourage vegetative growth instead of flowers
