Care of Buddleia Bushes

Hi Blackbird,

I have let my buddleia grow upwards to form a kind of tree. I find this attracts both birds and butterflies.  I always cut mine right back late October and it never fails to start sprouting again vigorously in the spring.  I personally would never transplant, but that's because I am not green fingered and everything I have ever moved has died off. I'll stick to birding LOL.

Regards

Stephen

I have mine in tree form and cut them back every october or March. They need cutting back to about 9" off the ground if you want them to keep as a bush. They are easy to transplant in fact two of mine are branches from another and just shoved into the soil and they came up the next year.

They are as tough as old boots and should withstand re-planting, and if they don't flourish, well you've lost nothing but free seedlings growing in the wrong place. As to pruning, it should be done sometime after flowering in the autumn and winter, it wouldn't curl up and die if you did it now, but it may reduce flowering for this year - but it'll recover and flower like crazy next year:-)You can cut it right down to the ground if it suits you, it should come back more vigorous.

How many of the seedlings do you have?  Remember they grow rather large, and so you could end up easily overcrowding your garden with them.  If they have reseeded in the pathway, they will have also reseeded in the garden space.

Millie S said:

If they have reseeded in the pathway, they will have also reseeded in the garden space.

Millie has a good point, it's a good reason to deadhead them before they go to seed:-))

Hi everyone

Sorry for interrupting the flow of the thread Kezsmum - jsut carry on with the discussion after this post

Just to say thank you everyone for your answers on here - just catching up and I will take note of what people have to say from experience with Buddeia's

Note: We do not have Davidii, but the purple variety in our current garden.  We had Davidii in one of our former gardens and the bush ended up huge and high - until we gave it a trim one year bravely enough!

These are the photos of our current bushes without any trimming taking place at the moment - thought a few pictures would explain situation a little better too

This is one in our rockery next to the stone bird bath

These are the 3 others which are spindly and tall but still flowered last year.

Another question I have thought about bout - is it possible to plant them together as one bush when I pick the right place.

I see that there are mixed views about replanting them in another place!

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Hi Blackbird,

Looking at your seedlings they might be too large to transplant with any sucess especially if they are growing in cracks of paving.I have had a few do this and tried to get them to grow elswhere in the garden but they have died.If the seedlings are quiet small and are in an open part of the garden or paved area,then they can sometimes be saved but I myself have found that if they are coming up in pavement cracks then often the roots go under the slabs and get ripped off the bottom of the seedling when they are pulled up.

Give it a try by all means as you have nothing to lose,especially if you still have the main bush.We usually chop ours down to about six inches or so from soil level,but we have found that if we leave the cutting back until the spring then we either don't get any flowers that year,or if we do they are very sparce.Also by cutting back iont he spring any new growth can be knocked back  by spring frosts.

Good luck with them and do let us know how you get on as they are a fantastic bush to have in the garden and on a good year they will be covered with butterflies and bees...

Hi Robyn

Thank you for your reply, and your thoughts about the matter of how to grow the bushes

I will let you know what happens next

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Having seen the photos I'd say Robyn's right, they're too big to make it, I thought they were titchy things - sorry, made an assumption - but if you want to increase your stock here's a link about taking softwood cuttings:

http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/gardenplants/cuttings_softwood/index.html

They grow like weeds so the chances are you could grow several near each other but the best way to make a plant thicken up is to pinch out the growing tips, makes the stems send out side shoots. Great shrubs for insects:-))

Hi Kathy

You really need to prune Buddleia hard back every year in order to maintain control of it, otherwise you end up with thick, hard, branches at the base and flowers at the top. Then it is a most unattractive garden shrub.

It can withstand being cut back as far as you can cut it back every year, (almost ground level if you wish) and that keeps new shoots forming from the base that look shrubby and attractive.