- Blue Chip butterfly bush
I bet you’re like me. Admit it, you get excited when your plant catalogs arrive in the mail. I savor every page of my favorites, like White Flower Farm, Heronswood and Klehm’s Song Sparrow, dog-earing pages of plants I would love to add to my garden. I look at the catalogs over and over again, adding and deleting plants on my Wish List.
I consider my Wish List just that – a list of plants I’d love to grow but for one reason or another I most likely never will. Maybe my soil’s not right, or I don’t have room for one more yellow daylily or I know deep down that the deer will eat it before the end of it’s first growing season. Those plants may never make it to my garden but I can still dream.
Some plants do make the leap from my Wish List to my Must Have List. The plants on my Must Have List have been researched so I know they’ll be excellent additions to my garden. In case you’re wondering, they must meet a few stringent tests:
- Must be low-maintenance
- Must be drought-tolerant
- Must be deer-resistant
- Must have multi-season interest
- Must have a long flowering season (if applicable)
The first plant to make it to the Must Have List in 2009 is a dwarf butterfly bush called Blue Chip buddleia . Blue Chip is the first introduction in the Lo & Behold™ line of mini shrubs. It grows to be about 30″ tall and wide and will be a stunning addition to the front of my new mixed border. I’m looking forward to the blue flowers attracting butterflies and hummingbirds all summer long.
Soon I’ll tell you about another one of my Must Have plants but for now I’d love to hear about what’s on your Must Have List this season.
Photo Credit: Proven Winners
