If you are looking for a neat, tidy flowering shrub, Butterfly Bush really isn't the plant for you.  However, if you can get past its fairly scraggly overall appearance and appreciate the large, profuse, colorful,  fragrant blooms that are bee and butterfly magnets, then you might want to give it a try.  

I personally didn't try Butterfly Bush until last year because the plants at the garden store were kind of beat-up looking with few blooms and were actually quite pricey.  Finally one day in my travels I found some bare-root specimens that were a buck apiece so I said what the heck and bought white and purple.  I put them in pots where they languished for the entire summer, and finally during fall clean-up I made room for them and planted them in the ground.  With the warm spring, they barged out of the ground and grew quickly to about 5 feet and the purple one has just started blooming.  I am having a time trying to get a decent picture, but more pictures will follow soon as more blooms appear.  The white plant has buds on the end of every stem but no actual blooms yet and has been overall a little bit slower as far as maturing for reasons unknown to me.

Despite a few drawbacks, I think I am going to like these plants a lot once they reach full bloom.  The blooms are big at a foot or more in length.  The are fat on the bottom and taper gracefully at the ends, much like lilacs.  My plants are not the rounded bushes you see in the catalogs, but rather are kind of wide and flat like a fan - see picture to the right (again not the greatest picture but I will keep trying).   The experts say that if you cut the plant back early in the spring every year, it will eventually become more rounded.  More on this below.  Blooms occur on every stem, with somewhat smaller blooms on side stems.  Removing spent blooms with pruners is recommended to keep the plant producing more flowers.  The plant grows like a weed, so this is a good way to keep it sorta kinda within bounds too. 

One thing that I have noticed that I am not too thrilled about is that when it rains or when I turn on the sprinkler, the blooms all flop down because they are too heavy, some all the way to the ground.  As one might imagine, this compromises the overall look of the plant fairly significantly.  However, if these things bloom from now until fall, I have plenty of time to assess how much this bothers me, because as I write this it is only mid-May here in the deep south, and both plants are well on the way to full bloom.   

Butterfly bushes produce blooms on new wood, and as such can be pruned pretty much whenever necessary within reason.  Obviously, don't prune a stem with buds on it but any branches that have finished flowering are fair game. The professionals say prune hard in early spring when the plant starts looking vigorous but before any buds appear, and then give a light pruning of new branches in mid summer, if necessary.  The plant prefers full sun and average soil, with good drainage. Once established, Butterfly Bush is fairly drought tolerant, but don't let it get so dry that it is stressed.  The plant will die to the ground in winter in northern climates and will be late to re-emerge, so don't forget where it is and inadvertently overplant it with something else in the spring.

Uses are many for the Butterfly Bush in the home landscape. With flower colors including purple, blue, yellow, white, and pink, there is a Butterfly Bush for every type of home scenario except those with too much shade.  It's an obvious choice for bee and butterfly gardens, and is often used as the centerpiece in these gardens.  Mature specimens make a nice hedge plant, or back of border plant, and grouped together, Butterfly Bushes make sensational focal points, but again, they die all the way back in winter so don't forget to plan for that.  As they are bee magnets, it is probably not a good idea to plant them right at an entryway for obvious reasons. 

Fertilize Butterfly Bushes in early spring using a balanced fertilizer for flowering plants.  If necessary, fertilize once more in mid summer to keep the plant healthy. 

Propagation for Butterfly Bushes can be done from softwood cuttings in the spring, before the plant becomes too woody.  Try to retain at least two sets of leaves, pot the cuttings in good potting soil, and keep moist and out of direct sunlight until rooted. 

Finally, Butterfly Bush blooms make good cut flowers for arrangements. Make sure you cut them when about half the flowers have bloomed but before the first and lowest flowers start to fade. 

Message Board

Gardens Ablaze Home