Instead, several sepals sprout alongside as many as 75 miniature stamens. The flower is usually blue or purple but can also have red, pink, white, or bi-colored blooms.

Certain cultivars, like the 'Pugster Blue', produce deep indigo-blue flowers, while others lean more true purple, red, white, pink, or yellow. Butterfly bushes grow well in hardiness zones 5 to 10.

The small blue flowers come out in September and October, and the foliage also puts on an autumnal display of scarlet. “It’s a small bushy number that looks great at the front of a border or ...