Poor pathetic buddleias: What's your secret to growing them?

Hi, everybody--

I have planted about six buddleias last year and this spring...(some were not much more than twigs, others were nice sized 2nd year plants).

Three of them have grown a little and have minimal number of flowers. One, a honeycomb, has gotten about six feet tall but the blooms are few and unimpressive. Another purple one is about two feet tall with a few blossoms. None are strong bloomers and attracting lots of butterflies...

So what am I doing wrong? I have them is 75% sun, good garden soil (too good?), fertilizer (when I think of it)...

maybe they need acid or basic soil? Some trace mineral that they are missing? I thought butterfly bushes were supposed to be easy to grow.

Plus, I seldom see butterflies visiting them. Any help on this would be appreciated... t.

a pic of my best bloomer--

Tabasco-I grow lots of butterfly bushes in just about every color of the rainbow. My soil is acidic and needs a lot of amendments to make it acceptable for most plants, but the butterfly bushes do beautifully without adding any thing to the soil or over watering. When I first planted them (years ago), I fertilized,etc. but now I just prune them in the late fall and let them go. You may need to add something to give a little acid to your soil. For the ones you have, in late fall (after frost), I would prune them to about 2 to 3 feet tall, and put some composted humus around their base to prepare them for winter. Sometimes it seems to take a couple of years for them to really take off. Right now my largest ones are the white variety, I have four large bushes with hundreds of blooms on each one, and they are over 10 feet tall. I pruned them down to about 4 feet last fall. I know it seems weird, but different colors do better or worse for me. I have never had much luck with the yellow ones, but the Nanho purple, lavender, and pink ones do as well as the white ones. I tried a red one, and it didn't do that well either. I have more butterflies than I've ever had this year, so don't give up. Eventually, you'll have lots of blooms and butterflies! Linda

What Linda said sounds right to me. I have 7 so far, plus 2 in pots to plant. My oldest are 4 years old and have not been fertilized or watered much and they are doing well, especially the ones in full sun. They didn't do so well the 1st couple years either. I think they have to get established. I have some 2 years old that are not doing well. They are planted under tall pines and I think the pine roots take everything out of the soil. I'll be moving these to another location this fall and see how they do. My biggest are honeycomb and nanho blue in full sun and black knight and white profusion in a little shade. I cut the dead blooms off when I get the chance. I prune them back to 2-3 ft in February usually. They have been covered in butterflies this year, mostly tiger swallowtails. More than I've seen before. Just wonderful.

I have a newly planted Lochinch buddleia this year and it has put on some growth but I agree it will take a year or two to really get going. I also think they don't need much fuss - they naturally grow on quite poor soils. Hard pruning is essential in spring. Keep trying!

Thanks, everyone. I think maybe the extreme summer heat was getting to them,-- since it has cooled down a little they seemed to have perked up.

I will follow your advice about pruning in late winter and not worry too much about them. Maybe I am killing them with Love!

Hi everyone,
I needed this info. I just planted 3 bushes myself, and this is good to know. As for the soil, my hubby and I just got this house a year ago, and there is alot of sand. We put plenty of soil with them, and they look pretty good. I do have a question though, since I planted them this week, should we still prune them down after the frost?
Thanks
Candy

Candy--are your bushes fairly size-able or just a stick coming out of the ground? It might help to know that...

I think generally in the south people let them go in winter and in the north they generally cut back some...

Tabasco- One is pretty little, but the other 2 are pretty good size they were in a 3 gallon pot when I got them. I was thinking, maybe I should leave them alone this year, and see how they do next. Then think about cutting them back.

Are you deadheading?

I find that lopping off the dead and dying flowers helps promote more blooming. Cut back to where you see new growth about to form a new branch. Also, my understanding is that these actually do better in the heat and tend to do better in the deep south than where you are, but obviously, your mileage will vary. I am referring to Buddleia davidii -- disregard this advice if you have another variety.

Also, do NOT prune them after frost. Pruning causes new growth, which will surely get zapped shortly thereafter when you have a hard freeze. Allow the frosted/nipped branches to take the freeze for the rest of the plant. Wait until last frost in the spring and THEN prune back all the dead growth.

"Intense summer heat." LOL Good one.

Dogzilla, an Ohio native who transplanted to Florida in '92.

Two good links on different buddleias ....

http://www.botanyshop.com/bbush.htm

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/hortinternet/shrubs-specific.html

I suppose after looking at all the links it sounds like it's best to wait until late winter/early spring to trim them back. In March you can look at your plants and see if they have dead twigs and decide then, since yours are babies...

I am just learning too about pruning since we moved last year from southern CA and the pruning process there was quite different from here where it gets fairly cold...

Thanks for the links! There is alot of information there for me.
Well I guess the monarchs like the new bushes, here is a shot I got of one today. My hubby came in and told me there was 2 on the bush a few minutes before.
Thanks again.

I have a white one, yellow one, and the purple one that has "red" in it's name. I had a pink one in the Spring. They were all about a foot tall then started putting out huge new stalks, grew to about 5 ft or more and they bloomed profusely. I deadheaded the white one and measured the blooms and they were all 12 inches! None of them have bloomed as much as that first burst in the spring tho. I can't reach one of them to deadhead it, but the few blooms it does have attract everything!

The pink one suddenly started looking really bad, then one of the stalks looked like something black was oozing from it and it started dying. I have no idea what the problem was since everything else was fine. I guess this one must have had some sort of disease. I ended up just pulling it out and didn't bother to try and save it. I got the Nanho blue one on clearance this week. Gotta love those $3 bargains!

I have about 10 butterfly bushes. The largest is the honeycomb, but it has the smallest flowers. It did take mine a couple years to get established, but the butterflies pretty much keep on the butterfly bushes, and ignore most of the other stuff I plant. The hardest I have found to establish is the Harlequinn, it seems slower than the others. I trim mine after all danger of frost is gone in the spring. I pretty much cut mine to the ground, maybe leaving a foot, and the three older ones tower over 8 feet tall. The younger ones are smaller. I do nothing to feed them, or the soil, and they do well every year.

Beautiful pic of the monarch....

Yeah, Harlequin (red-violet flowers, white-variegated leaves) is slower for me too, probably because of the variegation. Sometimes it throws a plain green branch and I have to clip that out or it will take over.

Very interesting about the buddleias. I just went out and looked at my honeycomb and it's quite large now, but of course no butterflies are on it. LOL

My harlequin is blooming a little but seems to pout. The others are still making a minimal show---maybe by next year they will be settled in and ready to do what they are supposed to do.

What was your favorite butterfly plant this year, btw?

I'm really going to make an effort to put in specific host plants next spring...I was a little hit and miss on my butterfly plantings....

Next year we should start a thread with pictures of our favorite butterfly bushes...

My favorite this year was honeycomb. It seemed to attract the most butterflies here. I have honeycomb, nanho blue, black knight, white profusion, royal red, and potter's purple. My harlequin died while I was on vacation. I have Guinevere, nanho purple and pink delight to plant this fall. Becky

My favorites were the Bi-color and the Orchid Beauty. I also have the honeycomb, three Nanho Blues, a Pink Delight, a Royal Red, one small Harlequinn, and one Harlequinn stick (lol), and a Black Knight. I want to get Empire Blue and Attraction in the spring. And I am considering getting a white one.

RedMaggie---Do you get a zillion butterflies in your yard or do you plant the buddleias for their flower interest?

If you get butterflies, which butterfly bush is the most popular?

Tabasco - I love the butterfly bushes because they're easy to grow, are pretty, smell wonderful, and yes, one of they're main attractions is they are the most popular plants in the garden with the butterflies. I wouldn't say I get a zillion - only five of those bushes are mature - the others are young and small. And I've seen people here who get TONS of butterflies at one time - but I get a decent amount, I've had up to 20 swallowtails at one time. Along with a variety of other smaller types. However, this year I also started planting host plants as well. Last year I only had four butterfly bushes, and I didn't have host plants for the swallowtails. Although I got some of them last year, it wasn't until I planted the host plants that I got the larger amount of butterflies.

Here's the forum where I put pictures of my different butterfly bushes. You have to go pretty far down - I misunderstood what they wanted at first, and gave pics from further back, then down a little bit more I gave the close-ups.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/535224/

RedMaggie--I'm glad you pointed out that link--I would have never found your pics of the buddleia. I am going to put in some host plants next year for sure.

I have some buddleias blooming right now, in fact, it's the best bloom I've had all year...but no butterflies around. I guess they've left?

Mine seem to be putting on some more blooms now. :)

I haven't seen any Swallowtails of Monarchs lately.... I've seen little ones, here and there, though. We haven't had our first frost yet. It shouldn't be long.....

The Monarchs are finally coming my way! My dark purple bush is putting on quite a few more blooms, and just in time! I'll have to take a pic of a Monarch on it today.

So glad you are getting some buddleia business! Please show us those pics you promised as I am needing a 'summer fix' today--

it's gloomy and grey here--much too early for that, IMHO! And our butterflies seemed to have disappeared! And now of course, my buddleias are putting forth their last hurrah!

Just found this thread, very interesting. I've grown B'Fly bushes for nearly 20 years.
It takes them about 3 years to get to their full splendor. Poor soil and little fertilizer is fine. A little compost at planting time helps.
My largest one sometimes reaches to 12 feet. I have a 2 year old one that got to 8 or 9 ft this year. Mostly they are 5 - 6 ft. Here in zone 6, I cut them back to 8 inches tall in mid winter. I also have Butterfly weed (Milk Weed) as feeders.
This season was my first with a digital camera and these 2 plantings have provided many opportunities for me.
Here is one pic, and if you are interested take a look at my 2 minute show at; http://Photoshow.comcast.net/fantasyfinishes/favorites ,then click on 'Winged Friends'
Andy P

This message was edited Oct 15, 2005 7:35 PM

Could anyone tell me if Butterfly bushes are easy to propagate and how? I have one purple one blooming very nicely, and I think all of you northerner's butterflies are down here right now. Id like to plant another one or two next year if I could figure out how to propagate this one. Thanks for any ideas.

Kathy

It sounds like propagation is easy if you use the layering method in the spring (or all year if you have warm winters, I guess) or take some cuttings in the fall and start them in pots in a greenhouse or warmer spot and plant out in spring...

Thanks, tabasco. Ill try taking some cuttings and potting them up.

Here's a pic of one of mine. It's not spectacular but it's better than it was. My white one is not blooming at all tho.

That's a big one - is it a Royal Red?

Yes, that's what it is. It did get big this year. It was little last year and just shot up some long shoots and got big this spring. All the butterflies love it.

Yours is pretty and so tall! and you have a visitor who enjoys it too! mine are about 2 feet tall except for the honeycomb which is about 6 feet, and still a few blooms...