List of Bushes With Blue Flowers

Blue flowers may not be as common as pinks, reds, yellows and purples, but they can quickly add vivid hues to your landscape design. Whether you're after deep, vivid blues or softer, pale bluish-purple, your local nursery should have a few choices. If color isn't enough, several blue-flowering shrubs offer fragrance, texture and other characteristics to help bring your garden to life.

Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus spp.) offers large single or double blooms. Blue cultivars include the common "Blue Chiffon" and "Blue Bird" varieties. Double-bloom "Blue Chiffon" (Hibiscus syriacus "Notwoodthree") grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 8; the single-bloomed "Blue Bird" (Hibiscus syriacus "Blue Bird") grows in USDA zones 5 through 9. Rose of Sharon is common nursery stock, although many cultivars are invasive throughout parts of the U.S. Several clematis (Clematis spp.) are also blue. "Bushy Blue Bell" (Clematis integrifolia "Caerulea") grows in USDA zones 3 through 10. Bell-shaped blue flowers appear in summer on this bushy, non-climbing clematis selection.

If you're after something that has an alternate benefit to just looking good, consider fragrant shrubs. Fortunately, shades of blue are common in fragrant shrubs. Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris spp.) typically grows in USDA zones 3 through 7 and offers light bluish-purple, sweetly scented, conical blooms in early and mid-spring. Other species and cultivars of lilac have different colored blooms; many are available, including dwarf varieties. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis spp.) comes in a wide variety of blues, as well. "Blue Spires," which grows in USDA zones 6 through 10, grows 4 to 5 feet tall and offers a light, gray-green foliage with long, clear blue flowers.

Dressing up your garden with blue is great, but don't forget about the sense of whimsy that texture can bring to your beds. Shrubs with interestingly textured blue flowers can give you the best of both worlds. California lilac (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus), which grows in USDA zones 8 through 10, for example, produces conical flower heads with an almost fluffy texture. "Victoria" is a 9-foot tall variety with deep blue flowers. Big-leaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla), which typically grow in USDA zones 4 through 9, produce big, fluffy balls of flowers. "Endless Summer" (Hydrangea macrophylla "Bailmer") produces blooms spring through fall. Big-leaf hydrangeas can change from pink to blue -- and everything in between -- depending on the pH of the soil. For blue or bluish blooms, keep the soil slightly acidic.

Putting blue in your garden is a way to add color not commonly seen among shrubs and perennials. When choosing blue shrubs, keep color theory in mind. For a monochromatic color scheme, go with all blue. For an analogous color scheme, choose blue, violet-blue and purple flowers to put together. If you want more color, consider a complementing scheme; blue and orange are complementing colors while violets and violet-blues pair well with yellows and yellow-orange.