I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to come across a butterfly flittering by. Well, I seem to recall Shrek swatting at one as he was walking to his swamp, but I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

Butterflies, besides their beauty, are pollinators. Although not quite the pollen collectors that bees are, they do have their place in the pollination world.

Bees buzz from bloom to bloom and plant to plant, collecting pollen and nectar on their legs and bodies. Butterflies, not so much. They lazily stop in to a flower café, have a little drink of nectar, take in the scenery for a while, then move down the road to the next bloom that strikes their fancy for another sip. Although not super pollinators, moving pollen to plants a distance away from their last stop is their superpower.

Butterfly bushes attract not only butterflies, as their name implies, but also hummingbirds, another pollinator. If bringing butterflies to your garden isn’t all that important to you, that’s cool. Butterfly bushes also provide striking color.

Butterfly bushes produce long panicles of colorful flowers in vivid shades of blue, amethyst, purple, white, pink and red. Depending on the cultivar, they can grow 6 to 12 feet in height and width, or as small as 2 to 3 feet with dwarf varieties. The panicles are long spikes that contain a hundred little flowers, clustered together, to form a stunning bloom. They cover the bush from late spring until fall.

There is some clamor about butterfly bushes being invasive. However, there are many varieties that have been developed that produce little to no seed (sterile plants), and keeping a seed producing variety in check is as easy as deadheading before the seeds are dispersed. They are most predominantly considered invasive in the Pacific Northwest, coastal California and along the eastern seaboard.

Plant in full sun, so they receive at least six hours of sun daily. They are susceptible to root rot if left to stand in consistently wet soil, so planting in well-drained soil or on an area that is sloped is ideal. The tag will tell you how large the plant will be at maturity, and it should be placed in an area that will accommodate it. This will also reduce the amount of pruning that you will do to keep the plant from outgrowing its space.

Dig a hole twice the size of the root ball in width and just as deep as the uppermost root. Planting butterfly bushes flush with the earth or slightly above will help water drain away from the plant. Plant in spring to mid-summer to give plants enough time to establish before colder temperatures arrive.

Butterfly bushes are deciduous to semi-evergreen. I have a bush, now in its third season, that has historically lost so few leaves throughout the winter months that it appears to be evergreen. Our moderate temperatures lend a hand in that.

Following is a list of cultivars that have been developed to be sterile.

• Lo & Behold Blue Chip: 2-3 feet tall and wide with purple flowers;

• Lo & Behold Blue Chip Jr.: 18-30 inches tall and wide with blue-purple flowers;

• Lo & Behold Lilac Chip: 18-24 inches tall and 24-30 inches wide with lavender-pink flowers;

• Lo & Behold Pink Micro Chip: 18-24 inches tall and wide with pink flowers;

• Lo & Behold Ice Chip: 18-24 inches tall and wide with white flowers;

• Lo & Behold Purple Haze: 24-36 inches tall and wide with purple-blue flowers;

• Miss Molly: 4-5 feet tall and wide with red-pink flowers;

• Miss Ruby: 3-5 feet tall and wide with magenta flowers;

• Asian Moon: 3-7 feet tall, 3-5 feet wide with purple flowers that have orange throats; and

• Buddleia Flutterby Petite Tutti Fruitti Pink: 2-3 feet tall and wide with fuchsia-pink flowers.

I am going to put the spotlight on one particular cultivar, the Pugster Blue Butterfly Bush. It is a compact bush with a mature size of 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. Unlike some compact bushes, this cultivar produces full-sized flowers from summer through frost. The blooms are a unique blue that is seldom found in the garden and have a small orange center. Pugster also has varieties in amethyst, periwinkle and pink.

As I was over at the Master Gardener Greenhouse, I picked up a blue variety to add to my landscape, and there are still plenty to choose from if you want to add one of these vibrant beauties to your garden. Until next week, happy gardening.

— Irland, a member of the Limestone County Master Gardeners, can be reached at kippirland@hotmail.com. Visit http://mg.aces.edu/limestone for more information on the Limestone County Master Gardeners.