{"id":11118,"date":"2018-11-05T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=11118"},"modified":"2018-11-05T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T16:25:50","slug":"dieback-shrubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2018\/11\/05\/dieback-shrubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dieback Shrubs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Buddleia<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dieback shrubs are a group of hardy landscape shrubs that emerge and grow vigorously from mid-spring through early summer. They bloom reliably\u00a0from late summer into early fall. Plants are near the edge of their hardiness range,\u00a0and often die back to the ground in the winter. They act more like herbaceous perennials.\u00a0The above-ground shoots are not dependably winter hardy.<\/p>\n

Stated another way, a dieback shrub is a woody deciduous species\u00a0that grows one full plant zone lower (colder) as a perennial. A\u00a0zone 7\u00a0hardy woody shrub\u00a0performs more like a herbaceous perennial in zone 6. It dies back to the ground in winter and re-grows and blooms the following year.\u00a0Prune the shrub back in early spring before the bud break.\u00a0Their colorful flowers attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators,\u00a0 and are mostly deer resistant.<\/p>\n

Four Reliable Dieback Shrubs:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Butterfly bush<\/strong> (Buddleia x davidii<\/em>) is cold hardy to zone 5 which makes it suitable for most gardeners in the United States. These shrubs generally grow 2-3 feet tall, usually as wide and tall. They\u2019re tough plants that can tolerate lean and alkaline soils. Plants perform at their best in average well-drained soil with a pH range of 5.5 to 8.5.<\/li>\n
  2. Bluebeard shrub<\/strong> (Caryopteris spp.<\/em>), also called blue mist or blue spirea, produces gray-green foliage and bright blue flowers in early summer through fall (USDA hardiness zones 5-9). Leading varieties include Petit Bleu\u00ae (rich blue blooms), ‘Worcester Gold’, and \u2018Longwood Blue\u2019.<\/li>\n
  3. Chaste tree<\/strong> (Vitex agnus-castus<\/em>) include short growing varieties like Blue Puffball\u2122 (3-4 feet tall and wide in zones 6-9) and Blue Diddley\u00ae (3-6 feet tall in zones 5-9).<\/li>\n
  4. Crape myrtle<\/strong> thrives in the southeast U.S. (zones 6-10), but are at risk in colder northern areas. Grow them as perennials in full sun and average well-drained soils. Select the hardiest forms from the U.S. National Arboretum. I recommend\u00a0these 4 varieties such as ‘Natchez’, \u2018Muskogee\u2019, ‘Acoma’, and ‘Osage’ to try in zones 5b -6a as herbaceous perennials.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dieback shrubs are a group of hardy landscape shrubs that emerge and grow vigorously from mid-spring through early summer. They bloom reliably\u00a0from late summer into early fall. Plants are near the edge of their hardiness range,\u00a0and often die back to the ground in the winter. They act more like herbaceous perennials.\u00a0The above-ground shoots are not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,1218,747,1319,1351,963,696,749,299,710,144,914,778,674,645,806,1138,853,551,843,601,729,777,1210,706,646,1085,113,1222,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11124,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions\/11124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}