Hi. This is Dave Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom and we are working around the yard today. I’m doing a lot of pruning and I want to show you how to prune a Buddleia or a Butterfly Bush.
Now in some areas of the country, it’s actually considered an invasive which means that it takes over. You don’t want to plant this. We’re fortunate here in the northeast. This is marginally hearty. Some years, this would die all the way back and might even have to be replaced so we can plant these as ornamental plants. But places like California, they’re ripping these out because they’re taking over. So know your area and know your zone if you should even have this in your garden.
I cut this plant back almost to the ground last year, so everything that you see above that, that’s all the growth that came out of the plant in one year. I like to prune the Butterfly Bush just about the time croakers are out. It’s very easy to prune back a Butterfly Bush. Really, the reality is, you can prune it right to the ground. I look at it and I see where to dye it back over the course of the past winter. The dyed back is the part of the plant that’s literally dyed back lower to the ground because of all the cold and snow. Now this year, my plant has dyed pretty far close to the ground. I can already see some new growth beginning to come up and we’re just going to prune right above that.
A nice pair of sharp shears, make a nice cut right above the new growth. Get rid of the old growth and you’re done. It’s that easy. The last step I’ll do is I’ll put a little bit of flowering organic fertilizer around the base of the plant. It’s going to rain in a couple of days, it will wash in and this guy will flower all summer long, just this beautiful purpley blue color attracting lots of butterflies and even hummingbirds to the garden.
For Growing Wisdom, I’m Dave Epstein.
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