Butterfly Bush Info wanted please

I just planted about a 3 foot tall, Black Knight, butterfly bush. I am very inexperienced and would like to know the correct care ie: feeding, watering, pruning etc to give this beauty. I am in zone 8. Can anyone with any knowledge of these plants give me some advice. I planted it with 1/3 pilter, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 top soil and used a root starter to help the roots. I know after the 1st year they don't need a lot of water but how much until then? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Vicki

They're not really very picky (actually I think they're so un-picky that they are invasive in your area). I would deadhead the flower spikes as they fade, this will keep it blooming longer as well as prevent it from forming seeds. Personally I never fertilize mine, they grow plenty well without it. For pruning, I would definitely prune it every year unless you want it to grow into a huge tree-like thing, in colder zones they will die back enough in the winter that they're just nice shrubs but around here I've seen people with Butterfly Trees in their yard because they didn't keep them pruned. I usually prune mine sometime over the winter but never really paid too much attention to exactly when. Watering--it will definitely need regular water during the first year especially during the summer. You guys get a lot of rain though so you may not need to supplement it too much, anytime you feel the urge to water it I would stick your finger down a few inches into the soil and make sure that it's not still wet, if it's dry then give it a drink but if it's still wet then leave it alone. If you do this test regularly at first, you'll start to get a feel for how often you need to water.

Hi Vicki, you have chosen a really lovely Buddleia, this one has really deep purple flowers on it and as it ages, the flower heads get bigger each year, eventually to be about 8/10 inch long, I can tekk you you will attract the widest range of butterflies as soon as it starts to flower, fo the first year, dont prune it too much, just dead head the flowers, you will get a second flush of flowers, but not always as many or as big, but as Ecrane told you, if you dont deadhead, then they seed about in the most unexpected places, dont prune the first year, but there after cut it right back to about 12/18 inch from the ground, as I can on occasions get a really cold frosty winter, I wait for the pruneing till early spring as the old dead branches give it a little protection from frost, you can be quite brutish with these plants once established and they still come back, after pruneing in spring, I give a feed of a multy purpose food for shrubs, so good luck and hope you get lots of butterflies into your garden. WeeNel.

when the plant groes into a small tree is it attractive?

I think it's a matter of personal taste. Personally I prefer them as a shrub because then you can deadhead them which keeps them blooming longer and prevents them from going to seed, this is important in areas where they can be invasive

Hi Linda, the butterfly bush wont ever really grow into a tree unless you choose a leader/main stem and train it into a sort of standard tree like shrub, which will need a support/stake as it will become top heavy, will need special pruneing to stay that way and personally, if you want a tree as a feature, then buy a tree as you are trying to turn an attractive SHRUB into something it will never be or look right in any setting and, if left to it's own devices, it becomes a mass of tangled stems, looks out of control and will seed itself all over the garden and neighbourhood in time, these are quite fast growing shrubs once established and require to be pruned each autumn or spring, depending on which area/zone you live in, the pruneing helps it to make new flowering stems and also acts as a controle to keep it into a more managable size, as a young shrub, it needs the same care and attention as any young plant, that is fed and watered till it gets the roots down into the soil, there after, it is as discribed, pruned, fed and general tidy as the flowers fade so you can get a second flush of flowers later on in the season. hope this helps you out a bit, they also attract many butterflies, hence the name, and other birds or insects that love the pollen from them, very enjoyable to watch and these also help to polinate your other plants, veg and flowers. good luck. WeeNel.

I've just been listening. :)
Hi Linda--I'm close to your area and have a butterfly bush that is 3 years old. When I planted it, it was about 6 inches tall. I decided to only trim it to shape it as I wanted it to be tall. It is now about 8 feet tall. Anyway--I said all that to say this. The way it grew, the bottom growth seemed to naturally separate from the top and it started looking bad. (maybe I didn't trim it properly. I'm new at this kind of stuff.) I cut the bottom limbs off and it now looks like a tree. I really like it!

I'll try to take a pic and post it tonight (if it's not raining. ha)

I've got a butterfly bush out in a nice sunny spot in the front yard... i just stuck it in the ground and never touched it again except to occasionally water and it's doing fine.

Trying to train a butterfly bush to a more formal look would be difficult...they are rangy and willowy...we shove them behind things so you don't see the untidy habit ...but can still see and love the blooms. Are you familiar with a white one called Spring's Promise? It smells like freesias so I did not chop it at all (due to the wonderful perfume) and it is about 20 ft tall and a very rangy strange looking thing.......but come late winter it is covered in amazing white spires of heavenly scent!....all the butterfly bushes are a great addition to our gardens....so enjoy it.....we just hack them back if they grow too big...or let them have their way if they are to die for ...like Spring Promise.

Is Spring Promise by any chance a cultivar of Buddleia asiatica rather than the more common Buddleia davidii? I have B. asiatica (the straight species, not a cultivar) and it sounds a lot like your description, blooms in late winter, white flowers with a totally awesome fragrance. Personally it's my favorite scented plant in my garden. If that's what it is, you can prune it in spring as soon as it's done blooming.

Ha ha ha I suppose I could try but the trunk is about 5 inches wide it is a tree like thing towering over the house...I would have to be very brutal! no one warned of this on the label!...I have no idea what type of thingy it is ...but the flowers are not fat and long like others they are skinnier and about 5/6 inches long .....ooooh but the devine perfume........it only flowers through late winter/to about mid spring. I don't know if that helps ...does yours smell like the lovely freezias you know the old fashioned ones with real freezia scent? if so it must be....it smells nothing like the other butterfly bushes.

It definitely sounds like it--the scent, the flower color, the way the flowers look, the time it blooms, etc. I never knew there were named cultivars of it, I've never seen any of those available here, just the plain species is available from a couple of places.

I have an idea it is a hybrid and perhaps an Australian one I will check it out later and get back to you on whether it is or not :)

About the Spring Promise....it is promoted out of NZ ...so perhaps a new one...I don't know because sometimes old stuff is given a new name for" Marketing" purposes....so grabbed a picture....what do you think?

I think it looks like my B. asiatica--here's a pic of mine blooming last winter

The flowers look similar but they seem "fatter" and not as pointy ...ha ha ha well I think we are both lucky.If it is the same watch out it is a huge grower!.....but you are most likely more neat in your garden ...mine is like a jungle ....just the way I like it!

Could be yours is a hybrid between B. asiatica and something else too, maybe that gives the flowers a nicer shape or something. Although with mine, I think if the whole flower spike had bloomed at one time they would have looked pointy more like yours, but all the flowers in the spike didn't bloom at the same time which makes them look shorter and fatter. I'm keeping mine pruned so I don't think it'll turn into too much of a monster! But now that I know it can get monstrous I'll definitely make sure never to skip a year on the pruning!

Good On ya Mate! just prune after the wonderful flowers have gone


mine is starting to bud up now! hundreds of them (that is why I don't trim )....I am a naughty gardener!!! :^)

loved reading about all the butterfly bush/tree stories!! i have an oleander and a rose of sharron that were planted together and formed a tree! of course it is 2 trees but so close that they look like one--they are pretty together --about 8 feet tall--maybe more of a big tall bush but since it grows up not out so much it looks like a tree

That sounds like an interesting combination ...what colour is your
butterfy bush?....is it a nice purple one ...that would be a beaut contrast...I have the double rose of sharon is that what you have?

vicki -- read your previous post on your butterfly bush and identified possible verticilium wilt -- one of the things that helps spread the disease is nitrogen fertilizer...it is possible that the fungus just took off with the root starter you provided at the beginning. read the other post to see what needs to be done -- signs of verticilium wilt are: leaves on the plant abruptly wilt, die, drop during the growing season. Can happen on one or several branches. Usually discolored streaking in the vascular tissues (purple). Fungus can infect hundreds of species of plants including catalpa, prunus species, daphne, lilac, nandina, photinia, smoke tree, sumac, viburnum, brambles, vegetables, and weeds. Among maples, the Japanese, Norway, red, silver, and sugar maple varieties appear to be the most susceptible. Remove and destroy diseased branches. Sterilize tools before pruning any other plants. Make sure you remove the roots, too.

chrissy--my oleander is hot pink and the rose of sharron is white--yes it is pretty-right out my bedroom window--i am now trying to do it again using branch starts--that is how i grew the two last time--do you know what people mean when they say that if you grow one plant from another it might not be the same? something about the hybred maybe? i can't remember but i know i have heard it somewhere-

You can propagate hybrids from cuttings, that will make new plants that are identical to the parent plant. If you collect seeds from a hybrid plant and grow those, that's where they won't necessarily look like the parent.

as in they might be a different color?--it would have to be the same plant right?

If you grow from cuttings, everything should be the same--leaves, flower color, etc. If on the other hand you collect seeds and grow them, the flower colors could be different, if the original plant was variegated the babies might not be, if the flowers were doubles the babies might have singles, etc. Still basically the same plant, in other words it would still be a butterfly bush or an oleander or a Rose of Sharon, but there'll be things that are different than the parent.

Yes seeds from hybrids are like us :when we have a baby it might have Aunty Betty's nose and Uncle fred's ears etc but it will still be in the family.:)

Great analogy Chrissy!

thanks for the info--very interesting--could be fun to see what you end up with!!

Please help, we love our butterfly bush.Something is eating it. We do have earwigs.Also what is the brown leave thing going on. It was real dry, we have had two days of rain. We water every night. Maybe too much water? Thank you love your site. Victor

Thanks Mostly, that sounds like what I was experiencing. I changed root starter and planted a new BB. Hopefully I can keep this one alive for more than a few weeks. The same things on the leaves of the BB seem to happen to the leaves of a Bee Balm, in an entirely different part of the garden. So might have been the nitrogen problem you mentioned.