A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Butterfly Bush

I have a pink Butterfly Bush and would like to keep it at a manageable size. So I need to know when it should be pruned back and how much? I am in zone 5. Thanks!

Patti, I prune mine back to about a foot from the ground in late February, early March. As soon as the weather is showing signs of possible spring but not quite there yet. It's about ten years old now and I've managed to keep it about 6' tall x 6' wide.

Added bonus to pruning...you can root some of the softwood cuttings for more plants.

I planted a 3 gallon purple Butterfly Bush last year. I let it do it's thing and come around April of this year ,I cut it close to the ground as all of the "stalks" coming out of the ground seemed dead wood. Right now it is flourishing with new blooms as i just cut off the spent blooms last week. Like Patti; I'm also in zone5. It seems to now be about 1.5 times larger than when i planted it. I'm assuming that in time the base will get thicker and woodier as the shrub matures. I have several Caryopteris shrubs(Blue Knight)that are about 7 years old that i cut to the about a foot from the ground in April.I guess you would call it a"2 steps forward,One step backwards" growth process. In time they develop to their maximum height and girth. I'll post some pictures of both this weekend.

Patti - I try to do it when TulsaRose said too - late February, early March, before it buds up. Have been doing this for years - sometimes I prune more dramatically than others, but they always come back for me with tons of flowers.

Thanks a bunch, Rosie, Merrill & Lynne, for all the information! It is greatly appreciated! I was especially glad to hear from Merrill because we are almost like neighbors in this vast universe of the Garden Forum and I know he has to deal with the exact same weather as I do!

Rosie, this would be a special bonus, IF, I had enough room to plant more, but I don't!

Merrill, I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures you post of your Butterfly Bush!

Patti, a couple of years ago, I took about six of the greenwood cuttings and stuck them in a large container on the front porch (with the intention of transplanting them to the backyard the following spring) and they are still there. I'll see if I can find a decent picture taken during bloom time...really a Monarch magnet.

Rosie, mine has been a butterfly magnet too. One morning, last year, I was walking out toward the bush and it looked all yellowed. I was shocked because I thought it was dying and it looked okay the night before! Well, when I got closer hundreds of butterflies started flying away! What a sight that was to see and what a relief! Rosie, I hope you can find your picture because I would love to see it!

Well, shoot...I couldn't find a decent picture of the container Butterfly Bush starts except one from last year that all the flower heads were already dead.

Due to the drought conditions we had for a year (actually up until this August) a lot of my things didn't bloom this year, including the big Butterfly Bush. It set a few flower heads but they just dried up on the shrub. Waahhhh!!! The container with baby bushes hasn't EVEN made flower heads. Double waahhhh!!!

Having learned a bitter lesson after losing so many plants and observing how affected the others were from the lack of water, I will be more vigilant in the future about providing supplemental water throughout the year, not just during growing seasons.

Patti, if you get an opportunity, please take some pix of your Butterfly Bush, hopefully with Butterflies and I'll live vicariously through yours.

Here are the Butterfly Bush and Caryopteris shrub pictures I said I would post. Caryopteris behaves very much like Buddelia in that you prune it down low to the ground in late winter/early spring and they are late summer bloomers.

Thanks for posting the pictures, Merrill. Geesh, your pink Butterfly Bush is so bright and vibrant! You've got a cute dog too!

Merrill - that is one of the nicest caryopteris I've ever seen - I cannot get mine to get large or full like that! I see you have the lighter shade of blue there - I have the darker one. It does get beaten down by snow from the snowplow each winter... I'm sure that had something to do with how small it is!

Patti - it does attract both butterflies and bees, like the butterfly bushes, but doesn't bloom until this time of year, so many butterflies have left us by now.

Here's a blury picture I took of it just now...
It is bluer than it looks in this picture.

Oh darn, Lynne, that's not good! I would have been interested in it for the butterflies, but I've noticed a large decline in my population now too! It's that time of the year again!

To Patti and plants'n pots; Actually the photo didn't get the colors right for either plant. The Butterfly Bush is a deep purple and the Caryopteris is the " Blue Knight" variety which is sort of a powdery blue. The Cs attracts both butterflies and bees, A LOT OF BEES,which I attribute to the size and health of the shrub.I have 10 of these here and I think the cross-pollination has helped too. This has been their best year and I would like to recommend a fertilizer I tried for all my established shrubs applied in April. It is "Bayer Landscape tree and Shrub Food" 21-3-10. Lowe's carries it.

TO Patti; thanks for the doggie compliment.Actually ther are two of the little critters.

Thanks Merrill - I'll be on the lookout for that!

off topic question...
how do you post pictures in threads?

you need to upload your pics to a hosting site (i use photobucket.com) and then you copy the link that's provided (says IMG on it) and paste it in your post.

joclyn is right!

The picture needs to be uploaded to a server. Most everyone here uses Photobucket.
www.photobucket.com
It's very easy. It takes just a minute to join Photobucket, and it's super easy to use...and FREE!

You upload your photo there, then there is a thumbnail of the picture, with 3 lines under it..."Url", "Tag", and "Img".
You just highlight the bottom line (Img) then right-click and copy it, then paste it right into your reply post.

At the top of the thumbnail photos there is an "edit" button, where you can resize your picture. The pictures posted here can't be over 640x480.

If you need any help please let me know.
We are here to help!

Cindy

Thanks :-D

I'll try doing that!