8 bushes with blue flowers you should have in your garden
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From sky blue to cyan, from midnight blue to ultramarine or indigo, blue-flowering bushes are always highly sought after in a garden. Here we discuss true blue, blue that softens overly bright tones or wonderfully enhances the green of the foliage, that adds intensity or creates contrast — for example alongside plants with yellow flowers — or that can also be part of a blue garden scheme. Whether subtle or intense, in clusters or star-shaped, the flowering of these bushes always creates charming, calming scenes. Blue-flowering bushes are perfect in cottage and natural-style gardens. Easy to combine, whether in hedges or flower borders, planting blue flowers proves essential! To help you choose, we offer a selection of the 8 most beautiful blue-flowering bushes: discover them!
Buddleja davidii or butterfly bush
From June to October, Buddleia offers abundant spikes of fragrant flowers crowned by numerous butterflies attracted by their scent. It comes in a range of colours and notably very beautiful blues, such as Buddleia davidii ‘Adonis Blue’ with large panicles of flowers 20 to 30 cm long in an intense midnight blue or the lavender blue panicles of Buddleia davidii ‘Nanho Blue’. Buddleia is among the easiest flowering bushes to grow and thrives in sun in any well-drained soil, even the poorest. With rapid growth, it quickly forms attractive, floriferous screens; you can plant it in groups or as a specimen, at the back of shrub borders and in informal, country-style hedges. It is perfect for natural gardens, no-maintenance gardens as well as scented gardens. It pairs well with all sorts of shrubs, such as Ceanothus or California lilac, Altheas, lavateras which flower at the same time, but you can also combine it with other Buddleias for a range of blues or with sun-loving perennials such as purple salvias, lupins or delphiniums.
Find all our blue-flowering Buddleias in our online nursery as well as all the information needed to grow them in this advice sheet: “Buddleia, Butterfly Bush: planting, pruning, care”
Ceanothus or California lilac
Whether deciduous or evergreen, this bush is highly prized for its generous, fragrant spring or summer flowering, reminiscent of lilacs. It produces the garden’s most beautiful blue flowers. Its handsome pyramidal inflorescences come in endless shades of blue, as with Ceanothus ‘Blue Diamond®’ and Ceanothus ‘Skylark’ with deep-blue flowers. Undemanding, it will grow in any ordinary soil provided it is well drained, in sun or partial shade and even in a pot! It suits all gardens, grown as a specimen or grouped in informal hedges with other bushes such as Buddleias, mock-oranges, altheas, or in borders with the handsome foliage of hydrangeas or Mexican orange blossom. It forms a fine backdrop for bush roses and provides a lovely complement especially with yellow-flowering bushes such as brooms and laburnums.
Find all our Ceanothus with blue flowers in our online nursery as well as gardening experts’ advice in our file: “Ceanothus: planting, pruning and maintenance”
Caryopteris or "blue spirea
Caryopteris or “Blue Spirea” is an elegant bush valued for its airy flowering in endless shades of azure and for its aromatic silver, variegated or golden foliage that releases fragrance when crushed. Its fairly late flowering from August to October follows summer blooms. This small bush, rarely exceeding 1.5 m in height, brings a touch of freshness right through to the onset of winter in English gardens, in naturalistic or wild gardens and in town gardens. It is a sun-loving, dry soil shrub, hardy and easy to grow that slips easily into a flowering hedge, a border or even onto a sunny terrace! Play with tones of blue and pair the particularly intense summer blue‑violet flowering of Caryopteris (x) clandonensis ‘Heavenly Blue’ or Caryopteris ‘Grand Bleu’ with Siberian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) which flowers at the same time, asters in similar azure tones, Ceanothus, buddleias or create contrast by pairing with the yellow flowers of autumn daisies and Helenium.
Find all our Caryopteris or “Blue Spirea” in our online nursery as well as our 7 ideas for pairing with Caryopteris, and our full guide: “Caryopteris, Blue Spirea: planting, pruning and maintaining”
Perovskia or Russian sage
Le Perovskia is a graceful small bush that bears attractive aromatic silvery foliage and a vapoury azure-blue flowering that lasts all summer, sometimes until first frosts. Centrepiece for dry, sun‑baked or sea‑spray‑exposed wild-looking gardens, its vibrant, lavender‑like silhouette brings a cool blue note. With its light, ramified spikes, it adds airy movement to sunny banks and large summer borders. A drought‑tolerant plant par excellence, it thrives in sun on poor, stony soils. We especially recommend the giant ‘Blue Spire’, which reaches 1.20 m in height, and the small ‘Lacey Blue’ with violet‑blue flowers, not exceeding 50 cm in height. They provide strong structure to wild‑looking borders when mixed with Buenos Aires verbena, lavenders, its cousins the sages and grasses (Stipa, Miscanthus…).
Discover all our Perovskia in our online nursery as well as our full guide: “Perovskia: planting, pruning and maintenance”
Hydrangea or hortensia
Hydrangea is a deciduous bush that instantly evokes the seaside and Brittany ! It produces an impressive summer flowering, globular, conical, flat or in large panicles depending on the variety. Traditionally blue varieties turn pink in neutral or calcareous soil. In alkaline soil, it is therefore better to grow them in a pot, in an acidic mix of heather soil, compost and potting soil — this will ensure a lovely blue flowering. Versatile, the hydrangea will find its place in a border, as a specimen near the entrance, in an informal hedge or in a large pot on the terrace.
Hydrangeas macrophylla and serrata are better suited to shady positions; ‘Nachtigall’, ‘Nikko Blue’, ‘Benelux’ will easily find a place in a woodland garden and will surprise with their bright blue inflorescences, as will Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Deckle’ with its pale blue flowers. They will be perfect in partial shade in a cottage or romantic garden. Plant them, for example, with foxgloves, hostas, ferns, azaleas and thalictrums.
Discover all our hydrangeas with blue flowers in our online nursery as well as our complete guide: “Hydrangeas: planting, pruning and care”
Ceratostigma or leadwort
Depending on species, the leadwort is a perennial, ground-covering and creeping or bushy (1.20 m in every direction), flowering from July through October–November. It is recognised by the star-shaped form of its flowers and above all by their electric-blue colour of rare intensity. It favours warm, sunny spots and grows easily in gravelly soils, even in dry, stony ground. With its long flowering of an extremely vivid gentian-blue, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides will form superb combinations at the foot of yellow or orange flowers of potentillas shrub species, of Sternbergia lutea (autumn false crocus) and of the golden foliage of Hamamelis or with grasses. Plumbago ‘Forest Blue’ (Willmott), with a cloud of stars in an astonishing cobalt blue, will combine in a large mixed border with the yellow flowerings of Coreopsis, goldenrods and heleniums.
Discover all our leadworts in our online nursery as well as our sheet: “Ceratostigma: plant, prune and maintain”
Hibiscus
Hibiscus or Althéa est un bel bush qui séduit par sa magnifique flowering estivale en corollas qui se renouvellent de juillet à octobre. Si ses flowers en coupe simples ou doubles déclinent tous les tons de roses, il existe certaines variétés comme l’Althéa ‘Oiseau Bleu‘ qui offrent des trompettes bleu vif à cœur rouge foncé, Hibiscus syriacus ‘Ultramarine’ à flowers bleu lavande au cœur pourpre ou encore l’Hibiscus syriacus ‘Blue Chiffon’ avec ses flowers doubles bleu lavande. Il est facile à to grow en soil riche, frais, bien drainé, neutral en situation ensoleillée même s’il supporte la mi-ombre.
Il peut atteindre à ripeness 3 m de haut et fait merveille en sujet isolé au milieu d’une short grass meadow, mais peut également intégrer une haie fleurie associé à d’autres bush fleuris comme le buddleia ou l’abelia. Il trouve également sa place au fond d’un massif estival avec des perennials champêtres comme les gauras, les phlox ou les asters. Il apporte la touche exotique dans des cottages anglais et même dans des jardins des villes car il supporte bien la taille.
Sélectionnez votre hibiscus à fleurs bleues dans notre pépinière en ligne ainsi que notre fiche : “Hibiscus, Althéa : to plant, to grow and to maintain”
Vitex or chaste tree
Vitex is a handsome bush with scented flowering, most often a very luminous blue in summer, and with attractive foliage that gives off a peppery scent. From July to October, when flowering is rarer in the garden, its spike-like flowering reminiscent of buddlejas unfolds in magnificent shades of lavender-blue or deep bluish-violet, as in ‘Blue Puffball’, and Vitex agnus-castus ‘Delta Blues’.
This all-rounder that grows everywhere, in sun even in poor soils, can be used in large and small gardens, planted alone, at the back of a border of perennials, grouped as informal hedges, or in a container. It pairs easily with all sorts of plants in a natural garden or a seaside garden because it tolerates sea spray well. It is wonderful in a flowering hedge mixed with any type of flowering bush such as ceanothuses or California lilacs, weigelias, a smoke bush, buddlejas and with perennials with blue flowering such as delphiniums, Knautia arvensis, Echinops, Perovskia.
Discover our range of Vitex in our online nursery as well as our advice to grow it in our full guide: “Vitex agnus-castus, chaste tree: to plant, to grow, to prune”
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