Buddleja Species, Hybrids, Butterfly Bush, Orange Eye, Summer Lilac

The Butterfly bush (Tor an fhéileacáin) attracts butterflies but grows everywhere and is invasive, it is naturalized here and grows fro...Read Morem the smallest niche in a wall. It benefits from being cut back, if hard pruned to a stump it may not bloom the following year. Here it is also (unkindly) called Lustan mún (Piss Weed) because of the leaves smell, or the fact its flowers are drunk and used as a tisane for the kidney, liver and bladder (i am not advising anyone to try this remedy at home!)

Native to China originally, often found on waste land, old quarries and next to railtracks.
Can grow on very alkaline soil, even c...Read Morehalk rubble in old quarries.
Tends to sprawl rather than grow upright, forms huge clumps.

In the late 80s to early 90s, Butterfly bush was hailed as a nectar source for a number of butterfly species. Conservation gardeners wer...Read Moree encouraged to plant it as part of butterfly/hummingbird gardens.

10 to 20 years later, the same conservation-minded folks were recruited to go on hikes with loppers & bow-saws to eradicate this stuff from an assortment of public parks and gamelands. I see groves of it along highway embankments. I doubt it was planted there.

Seek sterile cultivars. Monitor growth for unusual shoots. Just like the dwarf alberta spruces can have a branch or two that reverts occasionally, I've seen Buddleja cultivars go a bit wild.

I'm from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and I love gardening, after early retiring I began to do some hard work on finding some strange plants. I v...Read Moreisited a Nursery nearby and the owner of this place (Saudi) described this plant with so much admiration to this plant that I didn't hesitate to buy 2 plants 5 months ago and planted them instantly. They are growing really nice and healthy up to now. now it is February and temp is 24-30 Degrees Celsius still in winter and I'm afraid what it is going to be in real summer where temp is around 40s to mid 50s some times. Wish me luck with this plant. Note: no flowers yet to know what color I'm having.

I started with one shrub in the mid 1990s now I have at least 5 Butterfly Bushes in my yard. I lose count because they keep having babie...Read Mores! :) I transplant them whenever I can but am running out of space. They are like cast iron. They thrive on neglect and come back like champs every season. The mother plant is a medium purple and mildly fragrant. One of the babies is white with magnificent spires of blooms that are almost without fragrance, another is a darker purple with very fragrant smaller spires of blooms.

If you want to transplant these shrubs do it when they are small. I went to move a mature one last season and the root was as big around as my arm! There was no digging it up. I thought I might have killed it by digging around it. It has put out new growth and is eager to grow for this season :)

Has been added to the Oregon Noxious Weed Quarantine effective February 4, 2010.

Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii/ varabi...Read Morelis)

The sale of non-approved B. davidii/ varabilis within the state of Oregon is prohibited effective immediately. The ODA will be issuing Directors Exemptions to nurseries that wish to sell B. davidii/varabilis they currently have in stock to out-of-state customers. These exemptions will be issued for the remainder of this calendar year only and will not be extended.

ODA approved sterile cultivars of Buddleja are not regulated under the newly amended quarantine. The ODA, in cooperation with specialists at Oregon State University, are developing a process to approve sterile varieties of Buddleja.

Planted 3 last spring, blue&purple&and red and all 3 did well. Am looking forward for this spring and watching for more butterflies!

This plant has some of the most deliciously fragrant blooms I know of, this side of roses, but has been devilishly difficult to grow here...Read More in north Texas. Every one I've planted has died within a year, two at the most. The problem isn't frosts, as the climate here is rather mild. And I've never noticed any insect pests. Hard for me to believe that in some states they are classed a pernicious weed. But I still think they're worth trying here, if just for the fragrance. (As with irises, the deep blues and purples are the sweetest.)

A great plant overall. Doesn't seed itself in dry climates but it also doesn't grow well without additional watering. I have three butter...Read Morefly bush stumps, and they look sorry until they get a couple of lashings of water to help them along.
I love the colours it produces, they are very vibrant and noticeable. Interestingly, there are more bees on this plant than there are butterflies.
I guess that fertilisation and proper pruning makes the difference with butterfly bushes, because there are overgrown and neglected plants on roadsides, that look horrible, and there are lush and upright plants at gas stations, that are smothered in blossoms.

A class B noxious weed in washington state. An ecological threat to our natural areas which should not be planted.
Birds eat the s...Read Moreeeds which leads to its establishment in wild areas.

We had a wonderful plant. grew great the two years it lived

I grew four Butterfly Bushes from seed (starting them indoors in early spring and then planting them out in summer). They begin *very* s...Read Moremall, but within 2 years, one of the four was almost 10 feet tall. Two others in partial shade have now (after 4 years) caught up. The fourth has never been as hardy (initially because of bad placement on my part and being moved a couple times); it's barely 3 feet tall and scraggly too. They definitely draw butterflies, and their flowers smell intoxicating from quite a distance. Seedlings sprout up all over the place. In one case, I had one seedling that sprouted and grew to about 2 feet before I realized it was there -- on the opposite side of my house from any of the other bushes I have. How the seed got there I don't know. On the other hand, I kept transplanting volunteer seedlings to one particular spot where I needed a bush (a spot with lots of sun and dry soil), and they just kept dying. I don't know if they don't like transplanting or if the spot I was moving them to was too hot and dry for them. I know that Butterfly Bushes are considered an invasive exotic, but I really love them. They seem to bloom forever. One drawback is that the plants are so tall and gangly that, especially after they start flowering and after a rain, they flop over onto surrounding plants. Last March, for the first time, I cut the biggest one back to the ground, and it grew back to its full height (although it took a while doing it). I had been told that cutting it back would make it stand up straighter, but it still flopped over. I use two rakes to prop it up (it grows next to my house, so I only need to prop from two sides, and the house does the rest).

A pretty plant, but it doesn't draw butterflies for me. Maybe I have too many other plants that are more attractive to them.

...Read More/> I have heard that Butterfly Bush should only be cut back in the spring; otherwise it may die overwinter. Also, from my information, it is hardy in zones 5-10.

I have grown two of the 3in1 Buddlejas for about a half a decade. One thing to consider is that one of the three colors will dominate, t...Read Morehe white did on mine. While I do cut it back 6-8 inches every late winter/early spring the bushes seem to be declining .not growing as tall or vigorous. It could be the 3in1 variety the mail order companies sell are not as hardy, I have saved seeds and got them to grow and they did bloom the same year.

I grew a butterfly bush for 3 years also and then it suddenly died. It is a really nice plant, but how could it have died so suddenly?

I am having a problem with this plant. I have tried to grow 2 butterly bushes in the past. One didn't make it through the winter and th...Read Moree other didn't make it through a second winter. Niether of them grew much. I gave them special attention. Can't figure out why they died.
Now I have four of them,Two of them are really doing great. Showing grow,filling out and blooming out! The other two look bad. No new growth,no new flowers. The leaves are more gray than green! I treat them aii the same. They are in the same area. The two that are not doing well are up a bit higher on the upgrade. They are a little more in the open, but that is about the only thing I can see that is different.I really like these bushes and I want to figure out what to do to keep them alive. One last thing. We did purchase them a bit late in the season. My Huasband wonders if it was too late for them to get a good root system before out real hot weather? It has been over 90 degrees for a long time. Was 104 dgrees yesterday. I do make sure to water them. He also wondered if they need shade in this heat? They get full sun.I would appreciate it if someone would give me thie advice about this. Thanks, Deb

No plant is better to attract butterflies with than butterflybush, although lantana is a close second. It is usually cut back to control ...Read Moresize and produce larger flowers. Without pruning it can become an unruly large shrub that can be limbed up to form a small tree. The light purple (wild) form occasionally self sows and the seedlings grow rapidly. It is rather unattractive in winter with seedheads, dead and dying leaves, and young shoots all at the same time.

To lose some in the northern climates is to be expected but I found initially I was killing them kindness.
Occaisional deep water...Read Moreing and good drainage so they don't sit wet in the winter cold has been reliable. Other users lament about big growth next to the house, as with mine, underscores the benefit of good drainage normally found in that location plus the radiant/ambient heat of the structure.

I have had a few volunteers indicating the seeds can be winter hardy but not invasive in this climate.

Propagation has been exceedingly easy by layering low branches in pots or in the ground. Pots are easier and reduces transplant shock. I've never lost one. Wound and layer branches in early spring and they have roots coming out of the pots by July. By Aug it will be a goodsize blooming bush.

Seeds are very fine like white eyelashes with a very tiny black dot on one end. It's best to leave seedheads on the bush and watch for the ones that ripen and then begin to split open which starts at the end of the head and works back.

I planted 2 bushes in front of our house with a full Southern exposure. It's good and bad that they LOVE it there. They both grew wider...Read More and taller than anticipated, so I'm going to have to transplant one to the back yard come Spring, and move the other one farther from the house than I originally planned. Oh well! Gardening is always a work in progress!

After 3 years of beautiful flowers at nearly 6' high, this bush suddenly died. This spring(2004) it never budded and there are just brow...Read Moren sticks 5' tall sticking out of the ground.

I like this bush! It starts flowering at 12" so it's the perfect shrub to grow from seed, in the begining it can be treated as a perreni...Read Moreal flower until it grows large, just don't cut it back in the fall unless it has reached a hieght you like.

Wonderful for luring butterflies into the yard...even blooms in shade.

I "discovered" these wonderful shrubby herbaceous plants 15 years ago. They are relatively easy to raise from seed (depending on the var...Read Moreiety), and produce dense lavender, pink, white, or blue spikes in mid- to late- summer through frost on graceful gray-green foliage arches.

Spring pruning can help keep them in good form.