{"id":3946,"date":"2012-10-31T09:02:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T13:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=3946"},"modified":"2012-10-31T09:23:56","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T13:23:56","slug":"blue-mist-caryopteris-sparkles-in-late-summer-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2012\/10\/31\/blue-mist-caryopteris-sparkles-in-late-summer-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Mist (Caryopteris) Sparkles in Late Summer Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3947\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Caryopteris-x-clandodensis-1.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3947\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3947\" title=\"Caryopteris x clandodensis (1)\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Caryopteris-x-clandodensis-1-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Caryopteris-x-clandodensis-1-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Caryopteris-x-clandodensis-1-1024x575.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caryopteris x clandodensis<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Blue mist spirea or bluebeard (<em>Caryopteris x clandodensis<\/em>) is not commonly planted\u00a0in U.S. landscapes.\u00a0In mid- to late- summer, pale blue\u00a0flowers\u00a0open above\u00a0the gray-green foliage. Leaves and stems are mildly aromatic to the touch.\u00a0 There are now several good hybrid forms, thanks to plant breeders&#8217; efforts\u00a0to improve garden\u00a0performance.<\/p>\n<p>Caryopteris (I prefer this name) grows in average soil, preferably slightly acidic,\u00a0and wants\u00a0very little\u00a0extra care. Although moderately drought tolerant, don&#8217;t\u00a0allow it to suffer through a prolonged dry spell without irrigation. Cold hardy to USDA hardiness zone 5 (perhaps 4 with some protection),\u00a0branch tips\u00a0may die back 30-40% over winter.<\/p>\n<p>Some\u00a0plant experts classify\u00a0caryopteris as a hardy perennial and treat it as such. Shoot injury may become\u00a0noticeable in\u00a0early spring, necessitating pruning.\u00a0The easiest solution is to\u00a0severely prune back the entire shrub\u00a0in late winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This shrub recovers rapidly from cutting back. The\u00a0technique\u00a0is\u00a0simple, not time saving, and doesn&#8217;t require reading a pruning book.\u00a0It results in a\u00a0compact growing, space-saving\u00a0shrub.<\/p>\n<p>Caryopteris\u00a0may\u00a0open hundreds of blooms at any\u00a0time over a 6-8 week period\u00a0from late\u00a0summer into\u00a0fall. Caryopteris suffers from very few disease and pest problems, including deer feeding.<\/p>\n<p>Its flowers and\u00a0gray-green foliage (select varieties)\u00a0are prized by florists who utilized them in fresh\u00a0and dried\u00a0flower arrangements. Fresh keeping quality often lasts 7 days\u00a0and longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many hybrid cultivars are available, including\u00a0two favorites:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 &#8216;Worcester Gold&#8217;\u00a0&#8211; solid gold foliage and pale blue flowers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 &#8216;Dark Knight&#8217;\u00a0&#8211; deep blue flowers on 3-4 foot compact plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue mist spirea or bluebeard (Caryopteris x clandodensis) is not commonly planted\u00a0in U.S. landscapes.\u00a0In mid- to late- summer, pale blue\u00a0flowers\u00a0open above\u00a0the gray-green foliage. Leaves and stems are mildly aromatic to the touch.\u00a0 There are now several good hybrid forms, thanks to plant breeders&#8217; efforts\u00a0to improve garden\u00a0performance. Caryopteris (I prefer this name) grows in average soil, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,963,674,806,774,601,630,706,646,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946"}],"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=3946"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6186,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions\/6186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}