You can make your garden heaven on Earth! How? Bring the color of the sky down to eye level, and do it with shrubs! Blue is a peaceful color, soothing, relaxing – indeed heavenly!
Add fresh and lush looking foliage, often dense and decorative, to blossoms in shades of cobalt, aquamarine, azure, lapis or indigo, and your green space will look like paradise itself!
But true, blue is not that common a color in shrubs… Think about it, and you will see that, for example there are no roses in the color of the sea…
It is easier to have it in perennials and even annuals than leafy bushes… And this may make your search for a variety to grow in your garden or on your terrace a bit harder…
But get ready to fly! Because the journey among blue blooming shrubs, large and small, that waits you will be like gliding above the clouds, on a sunny day with a blue sky…
15 Heavenly Blue Flowering Shrubs
As we said, there aren’t many shrubs with blue flowers, like the sky; and here they are!
And we can start straight away with a real blue classic!
1: California Lilac (Ceanothus spp.)
Of course, the first shrub with blue blooms that springs to mind is California lilac – at least to me… Maybe because it is also called blueblossom, but also buckbush and soap bush… anyway…
If you want a sky colored floral display that lasts all through the season, this is the genus to go to… In fact, its flowers will start from late spring, and they will surely continue to the end of summer and, in warm countries, or with some varieties, till the end of fall!
And they come with great abundance, in end clusters that look like heavenly rabbit tails, sort of egg shaped – so many and dense, indeed, that they almost cover the whole shrub. Blossom is quite small, but a single inflorescence contains hundreds, and it is impossible to count them on a plant!
Or maybe pollinators and hummingbirds do? Yes, because they come in hordes. And there are many cultivars, as well, so you can choose betweenprostrate or upright habit, evergreen or deciduous…
But let’s pick three, all winners of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society… ‘Cocha’ (Ceanothus azureus ‘Cocha’) is maybe my favorite, thanks to its intense and deep cerulean to bright ultramarine spikes…
Or you could go deeper and grow ‘Dark Star’, with energetic royal navy tonalities, or maybe the azure ‘Gloire de Versailles’ (Ceanothus x delileanus ‘Gloire de Versailles’) is right for your garden?
And all are fragrant and will also offer you dense, serrated and semi glossy rich green and herbaceous looking foliage though.
Excellent in traditional and natural looking gardens, California lilac can be a specimen plant, or you could have it in large borders, hedges and screens, or as a wall side shrub, but it has a final gift for you: it will fix nitrogen into the soil, regenerating it!
2: ‘Sapphire Surf’ Bluebeard (Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Sapphire Surf’)
I guess the name of has caught your attention… And you won’t be disappointed, because ‘Sapphire Surf’ has a very, very intense and vibrant tonality of of blue, which is not actually sapphire, to be honest, but a bright shade of midnight, still…
This compact shrub will give you lots of small, elegant and heavenly flowers late in the season, each adorned with long, protruding pistils that end in lovely dark cobalt anthers, and butterflies and bees seem to appreciate this effect as well – and its nectar…
The blooms come in clusters that form rings, or clouds in layers on straight stems with an upright habit, and in great profusion as well! All this will partly coat the very dense, silver green lanceolate foliage that forms a round and compact mound.
An alternative to this variety could be winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society ‘First Choice’, which offers a deep indigo splash that contrasts with the pale shamrock of the leaves. Both are easy to grow, and both tolerate even harsh conditions like cold and dry weather.
Small but vibrant, ‘Sapphire Surf’ is a shrub you can easily grow in borders, or at the front of other bushes, by path sides, or even in containers, if you wish. It will suit an informal landscaping style and even a sunny coastal garden.
3: ‘Tuscan Blue’ Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Tuscan Blue’)
We all know rosemary is one of our best friends in the kitchen, but it is also an amazingly decorative (and tough!) flowering shrub! And ‘Tuscan Blue’ offers you the blooms in the color of the sky!
Flowering profusely, sometimes even stubbornly, in winter and spring, it produces a sea of little blossoms on the azure to coneflower range, between the pastel and vibrant, just when your garden most needs a splash of color!
They are small but plentiful, but look closely… They are really extraordinary if you do… They look a big like lobelias, or even some orchid varieties, with a broad lower petal, like a lip, and smaller ones on the sides that look like little arms.
The whole is topped by two joint ones that may remind you of rabbits’ ears… Hooked stamens and pistils rise and fall beautifully, and the overall effect is that of a flying dove seen from below!
Of course, you will also get the super rich green needle like foliage, with all its fragrance all year round (it is evergreen). And, yes, you can use this variety for cooking as well!
While you may want to grow ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary in you kitchen garden, even in a container, it is also an evergreen shrub that suits decorative spaces, especially in Mediterranean gardens, but in any informal one, as long as the climate is mild, and especially if you want the color of the sky when there are few blooms around…
4: ‘Blue Jelly Baby’ Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Blue Jelly Baby’)
Imagine plumes of blue flowers rising to meet the sky in your garden… You have just pictured ‘Blue Jelly Baby’ Russian sage in your mind!
In a way, this sub shrub will give you a similar effect to ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary, but at a different time and with a more airy and light personality.
In fact, it will blossom from mid summer into fall, and the inflorescences develop on upright and branching stems, with their lavender blue color!
With purple calyxes, these small flowers will come in great numbers, attracting butterflies and even hummingbirds, and, from a distance, they may look a bit like feathers…
The foliage starts at the base but grows all the way up to the blooms, and it is very particular and decorative indeed… Each leaf is long and narrow, but with many lobes to the sides, giving you very fine and elegant texture.
But there is another effect that this deciduous variety can offer you; they are aromatic, fragrant, and of a very interesting silver green shade.
Ideal for borders or near walls, ‘Blue Jelly Baby’ Russian sage will tolerate harsh conditions as well, including cold winters and dry spells. It is suitable to informal gardens that range in style from Mediterranean to courtyard and urban, including coastal areas.
5: Blue Butterfly Bush (Rotheca myricoides)
Here we need to avoid confusion, as the name can lead you astray: blue butterfly bush is not the same as the more commonly known butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), which we will meet later…
Native of Kenya and Uganda, it is a suckering evergreen shrub with a scrambling and open habit, and it produces terminal panicles of lovely blue flowers in late spring and early summer.
Look at them and you will understand why it is called so: they look like butterflies, with a long lower petal and two pairs of rounded and partly overlapping ones at the sides.
The actual color ranges from lavender to azure and sapphire, sometimes with the bottom one in a darker shade! Winner of the famous Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, it will follow its floral display with glossy ruby red fruits that ripen to black, and they are quite interesting, because they are divided into lobes…
This effect is not forgotten by the glossy bright green leaves that provide a luminous backdrop to this spectacle.
Blue butterfly bush would look great in any informal garden in shrub borders or hedges, or even in containers… Unfortunately, however, you can only grow it in hot climates, and it is far more common in exotic or Mediterranean yards.
6: Blue Rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp.)
…And we come to one of the most fabulous shade loving shrubs all over the world: rhododendron. To be honest, convincingly blue varieties are rare, but new cultivars are coming along with surprising results.
While the classic ‘Blue Tit’ dwarf variety offers you a tonality on the lavender range, there are now new options. For example, ‘Bob’s Blue’ is one of the best offering you lots of blossoms that hit a very vibrant Egyptian blue note, and that’s amazing…
But maybe the most incredible I have ever come across is the comparatively young ‘Blue Baron’… Its large, funnel shaped blossoms open fully at the mouth, forming a star of a dark and saturated admiral to lapis shade!
And this variety also offers you very dark forest green foliage with a hint of olive. The others will have brighter leaves, but always beautiful and glossy.
Back to the floral displays, as you know, they are jaw dropping; they will almost cover the whole bush at their peak, transforming your garden into a sea of blossoms, literally.
Some varieties of blue rhododendron are hard to find, however, if you do, they will flood your garden with this color for about two months, even under trees, or in large borders, containers and even as specimen plants. They are suitable to all informal garden styles, including oriental ones, of course!
7: ‘Marina’ and ‘Blue Chiffon’ Rose of Sharon (Hybiscus syriacus ‘Marina’)
And you do not need to give up on having an exotic looking shrub in blue shades in your garden if you live in a cold region… Because ‘Marina’ rose of sharon will come to your aid!
Its large blossoms reach 4 inches across (10 cm), and they have the well known round, gently frilled shape that opens to reveal the central reproductive column we all know well, in this case, pure white and surrounded by a dark purple patch.
But then, the petals fade to a lovely shade of pastel lavender blue, which can range a bit in tonality, sometimes even touching azure notes… Of course, this happens with species and plants whose cultivars are bred to blue from their natural purple pigmentation…
But if you want a safer result, the lovely double ‘Blue Chiffon’ will give you cockade like like blossoms in the most beautiful pale blue!
And maybe its heavenly color is why it has entered the pantheon of landscaping, winning the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society!
Both will also give you broad and rich green, lobed foliage that forms a dense and round clump where you can admire their floral display!
Suitable for borders, hedges and wind screens, and wonderful when grown next to walls, ‘Marina’ and ‘Blue Chiffon’ rose of Sharon are also very easy to grow and suitable to a range of garden designs, from exotic to cottage, indeed!
8: Cape Leadwort (Plumbago auriculata)
Here’s a really heavenly vining shrub for your garden or terrace: cape leadwort! Yes, because its blossoms are pure sky blue, and they will remind you of the joy and innocence of children’s eyes… Coming profusely in spring and summer, but possible all through the year with smaller waves in warm countries, the flowers are actually funnel shaped, but they open into five spread out round petals, with a pastel but bright tonality.
They will appear in small round racemes at the end of thin and frail looking stems and and they may look like they are literally floating in the air from a distance…
The branches are scandent, and the descend elegantly from above, tossed by the wind, giving you a very blissful yet dynamic spectacle.
All thus happens on a backdrop of bright green, ovate leaves, which are quite small and glossy if you look at them closely.
Filled with light, both foliage and blossoms give you an elegant and finely textured bush with a very refreshing and rejuvenating personality.
This must have come to the attention of the Royal Horticultural Society, which has prized it with the Award of Garden Merit.
Cape leadwort will need some support to grow, even thin, but apart from this, it will really fill any garden with the color of a clean summer sky even all year round, and it is suitable to all garden styles, but it’s a classic in Mediterranean landscapes.
9: Blue Hydrangeas (Hydrangea spp.)
I know you have been expecting the queen of shady gardens, hydrangea! Yes, you can have one in blue, as long as your soil is acidic.
And in fact, any pink variety will turn blue if the pH is low… But let’s meet some of the best you can choose from… Bigleaf hydrangea ‘Blue Heaven’ springs to mind immediately, with its round clusters in bright cyan…
The large flowers pack them beautifully, like clouds on a florid and emerald hilltop… On the other hand, you may prefer an azure note, and in this case, you may choose ‘Dear Dolores’ (another bigleaf variety), with less glossy and slightly darker foliage.
However, it makes up for this with a white blotch at the center of each bloom, which adds luminosity to its long display… If you want a big effect, then ‘Glory Blue’ has inflorescences that reach 8 inches across (20 cm), and they can reach quite strong notes indeed, even on the sapphire range (again, depending on soil acidity).
But if you want an even deeper shade, then small ‘Venice’ makes up for its minute size with its navy to nighttime blue blossoms on a leafy mound of dark green…
Here’s just a small selection of blue hydrangeas for you, in different shades and sizes, and all will thrive in an informal garden, even shady, as specimen shrubs, for foundation planting or in borders and hedges…
10: ‘Buzz Sky Blue’ and ‘Empire Blue’ Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii ‘Buzz Sky Blue’)
As I promised, butterfly bush, the traditional one, has finally come into our list; famous for its magenta, purple and violet shades, there are also varieties in white and in blue! Two, in particular stand out, and the first is the delicate looking ‘Buzz Sky Blue’.
In fact, it has a very pale, pastel tonality of neon to sky (of course!)… And this gives it an extremely peaceful personality, which, naturally, becomes dreamlike when the fluttering winged pollinators come to visit it.
If instead you prefer a stronger and bolder effect, you could grow ‘Empire Blue’… This cultivar has very vibrant, deep and strong nighttime, but on the bright side, which will fill your garden with energy, also because the dark orange eye in the middle adds a contrasting effect to the color of the rounded petals.
Both, however, will produce the well known long, bloom packed panicles with a conical shape that lean out of the leafy shrub. Each cluster can reach about 12 inches long, and they will last for months!
The herbaceous foliage of lance shaped gray green leaves that you see beyond the floral display adds light and a sense of freshness to the whole show.
‘Buzz Sky Blue’ and ‘Empire Blue’ butterfly bush are ideal for traditional looking gardens in temperate regions, where you can grow them in sunny borders, hedges and even naturalized areas.
11: Blue Potato Bush (Lycianthes rantonnetii)
Native of Paraguay and Argentina, blue potato vine is a decorative climbing shrub that offers you a long floral display that lasts all through the second half of the season, non stop!
Winner of the coveted Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, the flowers are about 1 inch across (2.5 cm), with joint petals that form open to a saucer.
There, you will see five darker lines that form a star, leading you to the saffron yellow center. And here we cone to the color; to be honest it is not fully reliable, as it ranges from violet purple to lavender blue, and neverreally hitting true blue notes, apart from in the 5 deeper colored stripes.
Still, we wanted to present it to you… And you may be lucky, but breeders have not yet introduced a cultivar that guarantees a lapis or sky tonality… Anyway, they will be followed by shiny fruits that ripen to shiny red and hang in clusters like cherry tomatoes (but smaller).
But don’t eat them, because the whole plant is toxic, despite being a relative of both tomatoes and potatoes… The leaves are small, lance shaped to elliptical and mid green in color, andthey have contributed to it winning the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Grow blue potato bush in a traditional looking garden with mild winters, and it will decorate borders, walls, or pergolas for a very long time with its blossoms and foliage, and it is also suitable for containers.
12: ‘Super Blue’ English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia ‘Super Blue’)
English lavender is famous for its amazing fragrance, the best of all, not soapy (like French lavender, or Lavandula stoechas) but perfume like, and for the color its blossoms, which takes the name from this sunny shrub, in fact… But varieties that tend to blue do exist, and ‘Super Blue’ seems to be one of the best and most popular…
The buds will indeed be blue even cobalt, and that is quite a spectacular achievement. When they blossom, they will tend to the – you guessed – lavender blue shade… There are other cultivars, which will give you a similar display, for example the famous ‘Hidcote Blue’ with very vibrant and rich tonalities, or for a luminous and bright effect, you could pick ‘Betty’s Blue’, whose open blooms display a very pale, almost pink shade.
None, however, will give you a fully blue blossom, but butterflies, bees and pollinators will not mind it, and they will come in huge numbers to visit your garden, and this is the third reason why this bush is well known for. All will give you thin and finely textured mounds of evergreen needle like leaves, in green or silver bluish…
English lavender is also one of the best types for cold countries, though it is, of course,a classic of Mediterranean gardens… So, even if you don’t live in a hot region, you too can grow ‘Super Blue’, ‘Hidcote Blue’ or ‘Betty’s Blue’ in your borders or even flower beds and containers…
13: Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus)
We remain in the same region as lavender with chaste tree, a shrub that comes from the Mediterranean region as well. And in many ways, they have a similar look… Ok, it is deciduous, and the bush takes on a vase shape, which is quite decorative…
The foliage is very finely textured too and grayish green, but it is digitate, which makes a difference, with 5 to 9 lanceolate leaflets that spread from a central point, like “frondy” hands… When summer comes, you will start seeing the similarities.
Yes, because long spikes of pale blue and small flowers will ruse from this leafy mound, pointing out and up, and curving gently to the sky… However, it is quite a big bush, and in fact, it can even be turned into a small tree…
But, whatever you choose it to be, it will attract lots of butterflies, bees and other pollinators to your garden all through the hot season, till the blossoms are spent. And it has also attracted the attention of the Royal Horticultural Society, has given it their prestigious Award of Garden Merit.
Despite coming from a warm and mild region, fast growing chaste tree is fairly cold hardy, so you can have in in hedges, wind screens and tall borders even in a temperate and traditional looking garden, or even in a naturalized area.
14: Pitcher Sage (Salvia azurea)
Native of the USA, pitcher sage is actually classed as a shrubby perennial, but given the scarcity of actual shrubs with flowers in our color, you can achieve the same effect with this heavenly beauty… And I didn’t use the adjective at random…
Its long spikes will produce lovely and fragrant blooms in sky tonalities, pastel but very bright and quite striking…
Each blossom has two large lower lips, dented and quite showy, and smaller petals on the sides and top; your eye is drawn to the throat, which fades to almost white.
Filled with peace and serenity, this floral display will continue form months from mod summer into fall, as if to preserve the beauty of spring days and skies well late into the season.
It is also a fairly big plant, reaching 5 feet tall (1.5 meters), which adds to the effect of having a bush. There is also the variety Salvia azurea var. grandiflora, with larger flowers that are paler inside and have a darker line around the edges.
However, it is an herbaceous species, and not woody, and this theme is kept in the foliage, with dark green, long and pointed semi glossy leaves that form a very dense mound indeed!
Also called azure sage or giant blue sage, pitcher sage is actually a cold hardy variety, which makes it ideal for borders in traditional looking and informal spaces, especially cottage and English country gardens – but not only…
15: Blue Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
And we close with a classic gardening shrub in a color which is not its usual palette: lilac… In fact, breeders have managed to bring out the blue range from its purplish range (lilac is a color too…) And one of the best results is certainly ‘Wedgedwood Blue’, with very, very dense panicles of azure star shaped and fragrant blooms….
Maybe the best on the market, there are however other cultivars you may wish to look at, all sweetly scented as well… For example, ‘President Lincoln’ has a lavender blue hue that’s quite elegant and refined, while ‘Blue Skies’ tends to pale pastel shades of violet (and pinkish at the tips).
On the other hand, ‘Wonder Blue’ opens from rose buds to display intense and luminous cyan blossoms! The contrast is both sweet and eye catching… There is also a double variety which claims to have bluish notes, simply called ‘Double Blue’ (Syringa x hyacinthiflora ‘Double Blue’), but this too does not have a fully blue tonality, and it tends to lavender… All, however, will attract lots of pollinators and hummingbirds, and a mound of bright green, heart shaped leaves!
Loved all over the world, lilac in blue and other colors has been a protagonist of traditional looking and informal gardens in hedges, tall borders or for foundation planting and in naturalized areas.
Blue and Beautiful, Heavenly Flowering Shrubs
Now we can come back to Earth, our journey in blue and sky colored flowers on the branches of beautiful shrubs has come to an end… It was short, because there are not many varieties in this color, but I bet it was worthwhile!
Written By
Amber Noyes
Amber Noyes was born and raised in a suburban California town, San Mateo. She holds a master’s degree in horticulture from the University of California as well as a BS in Biology from the University of San Francisco. With experience working on an organic farm, water conservation research, farmers’ markets, and plant nursery, she understands what makes plants thrive and how we can better understand the connection between microclimate and plant health. When she’s not on the land, Amber loves informing people of new ideas/things related to gardening, especially organic gardening, houseplants, and growing plants in a small space.