‘Pugster Blue’ Dwarf Butterfly Bush

Buddleia x ‘Pugster Blue’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5a-9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Perennial Shrub

Height at Maturity: 2′

Width at Maturity: 2-3′
Spacing: 2′ for solid hedges, 4′ for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Dense, Mounding

Growth Rate: Fast

Flower Color: Purplish-Blue with Yellowish-Orange centers

Flower Size: 6-8″ long spikes

Flowering Period: June to Frost!

Flower Type: Spike

Fragrant Flowers: Yes

Foliage Color: Green with slightly Silvery-Gray overtone

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries: No

Berry Color: No

Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun

Water Needs: Average, low when established

Soil Type: Clay (amend heavy clay to ensure good drainage), Loam, Sand, Silt

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Moist to Lightly Moist But Well Drained

Soil pH: 5.5 – 8.5 (Acid to Moderately Alkaline)

Maintenance / Care: Low to Average

Attracts: Visual Attention, Birds, Butterflies, Hummingbirds

Resistances: Deer – more info, Disease, Drought (when established), Heat, Insect, Rabbit

Description

Always wanted a butterfly bush but haven’t had the room to grow one? Meet ‘Pugster Blue’; one of the lowest and smallest growing butterfly bushes ever. Topping out at merely 2 feet tall and3 feet wide, this compact cutie produces loads of large, full-sized spikes of honey-scented purplish-blue flowers that keep coming and coming all summer through fall. The butterflies and hummingbirds will flock to and thank you for planting this one. Thanks to their thick and sturdy stems, all the varieties in the Pugster series offer vastly improved hardiness and winter survival over other types of dwarf butterfly bush. Super heat tolerant too!

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing in a spreading mound 18 to 24 inches tall and 3 feet wide, ‘Pugster Blue’ is one of the best butterfly bush ever for groupings, use as a groundcover or low border, or as a container specimen. We suggest planting in a pot at least 14 inches in diameter. It serves well as an accent in larger, mixed container gardens. In larger landscape spaces it is an ideal selection for use as a low border along paths and walkways, in groupings or massed as a groundcover in landscape borders and on sunny slopes and embankments, or as an underplanting for trees that allow sunlight to shine beneath their canopies. A fine addition to butterfly and hummingbird gardens, Xeriscape gardens (low water needs), and blue theme gardens.

Suggested Spacing: 2′ for mass plantings or solid borders; 5′ + for space between plants.

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Growing Preferences

Pugster Blue Butterfly Bush is exceptionally easy to grow. It thrives in full to mostly sun and isn’t too picky about soil type, provided the soil is well-drained. It prefers a moist but well-drained soil when young however is quite drought tolerant when established. At least 6 hours of direct sun per day is suggested for best flowering. As with so many other perennial plants, constantly soggy or wet soils can be problematic. No deadheading is required though you can remove spent flowers if you want.

Helpful Articles

Click on the link below to get helpful advice from our experts on how to plant, fertilize, prune and water Butterfly Bushes…

How To Plant & Care For Butterfly Bushes

Planning a Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden Design & Planting Tips

Plant Long & Prosper!

Meet The Wilson Brothers & Staff

Questions? Contact Us!

Pugster arrived in great condition and has adapted well to my garden. It began blooming immediately.———————————————-Thanks for the kind words and wonderful review! We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

This is my second order from Wilson Bros. As with the first, the plant came very well packaged. It was large and well established. For some reason on this order, the box had the arrow pointing in the wrong direction so the plant was shipped on it’s side instead of straight up & down. I’m imagining it was because of this that this plant looked worse than the 1st three I ordered. With that said, I planted it within 48 hours, and it has now been a couple of weeks I believe. New blooms, while small right now, have already appeared, and if my ‘brown thumb’ doesn’t kill it, I know it will do beautifully well. I’m so happy with all the information that is on this website, and especially how you can see they are definitely reading the reviews as they have answered/responded to several of them.
Wilson Bros is my ‘go to’ online nursery and I only go elsewhere if there is something specific I want which is not carried.————————————————————–Hi Diane, Thanks so much for taking the time to provide your review of the Pugster Blue Butterfly Bush. We are so sorry about the problem with shipping, but glad it seems to be okay. And we are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! Thanks so much for the kind words!! 🙂
Beth Steele | Wilson Bros Gardens
Thank you not only for the beautiful plant(s) but more importantly for the information that helps ‘wanna be gardeners’ like me have the best chance of success. 🙂