It may be a dieback perennial in your garden, but is a woody based shrub in mine :-)

It is a favorite of mine for its ornamental foliage a late blue blossoms. In my garden it is a die back perennial unlike the other Caryopteris I grow. My only piece of advice is that like certain sages, the foliage has a less than pleasant scent when bushed against, so I wouldn’t put it near a path or along a patio edge. Mine are something like 3’x3’ and are blooming now.

Hmmm there was a recent post about the advisability of planting caryopterious in the fall.. I and a couple of others had not had luck with fall planting.However I think I planted in late fall.(zone 6) Since I can't remember your zone,mx, you may be fine. From what you say, the difference may be that it was C. Blue Knight that died back and completely died. My SF is a complete die back very slow to emerge and very stinky when you brush up against it.. It is worse than "less than pleasant" but I think that's Barb being polite and understated. Mine is on a path; and it is so big it's difficult to dodge it.

'Snow Fairy' is C. divaricata, a true perennial and not a sub shrub like C. clandonensis.

I'm not usually a huge fan of plants with variegated foliage, but this one has a wow factor for me. The flowers aren't typical of caryopteris shrubs but pretty enough. I love the presence it has at this time of year.

in our MI ... you should be able to plant.. up until its too cold to be hoiking water around the yard.. in mid to late october ...

fall just started.. not winter ... focus ... plant everything.. so you dont have to mess around with overwintering too many pots ...

and.. maybe stop buying.. lol ... yeah right.. who am i talking about ... lol ...

ken

That was me who started the other Caryopteris post. I did ask Hallson's about planting the "Snow Fairy" this time of year, since I thought maybe I'd just overwinter in the barn. He said it should be planted now, it's different than the shrubby Caryopteris in that it's a die-back perennial.

I found a spot for it but probably won't get around to planting it until maybe next weekend - I have to move something else that's already there. So I guess I'll find out if this one will survive fall planting. Eh, if not - I got it 50% off, so something like $8, not going to break the bank if it croaks.

in MI .... die back Cs .... need the soil to warm to the depth of the roots ... so they can be very late to finally show up ... especially if you mulch heavily ...

How shrubby, subshrubby or herbaceously perennial any caryopteris will be depends on climate and location. In my climate, Caryopteris x clandonensis is a true, woody based shrub that has a year round, above ground presence. C. divaricata - the Snow Fairy discussed - is more of a subshrub, still maintaining a permanent woody framework, not a die-to-the-ground perennial. Here, both are located in the woody shrub area of the nursery, not in with the perennials

While this has no bearing on how either of these will act in a zone 5 climate, I felt some clarification was in order as those in milder climates might be surprised if taking the previous comments at face value :-) Some plants will behave very differently in different locations!

Thank, GG. Interesting,

I'm not sure I get all the variables but I know what mine does which is all I can manage.