Butterfly Bushes: Shorter & Non-Invasive Varieties - GreenView (2024)

FAQs

What is the problem with butterfly bushes? ›

They grow rapidly and their seeds spread aggressively into natural areas, making them a potential noxious weed. It's recommended that if you have butterfly bushes, you should remove the spent flower clusters to prevent seeding. Each flower can produce 40,000 seeds!

Butterfly bushes are full sun plants. That means they should get at least six hours of bright sun each day. It doesn't need to come all at once – it can be in chunks throughout the day. In very hot climates, a bit of afternoon shade is permissible.

Washington isn't the only place where butterfly bush is a problem. England and New Zealand, as well as several states on the Eastern seaboard, recognize B. davidii as an environmental threat. Oregon put it on its noxious weed list earlier this year.

Native substitutes for Butterfly Bush

For sunny, open garden or landscape plantings, try Sweet Pepperbush, also called Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) or Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica). For wetter soils, try Buttonbush (Cephalanthis occidentalis)—a food source for moths—or New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus).

Yes—butterfly bushes are invasive plants.

Invasive plants have the ability to spread quickly and choke out native plant life. While the flowers provide some nectar for butterflies, butterfly bushes are not host plants for any North American butterflies.

Typically, a butterfly bush will live about 10 years. You may find some plants that live longer than that, but it's a rare case. Proper care of a butterfly bush will help it live longer and thrive in your garden.

These low maintenance plants require little work beyond well-drained soil and good sunlight. The butterfly bush has a fibrous root system, instead of a taproot, which means the roots get their nutrients from the upper layers of soil.

Butterfly bushes do best when planted in early spring or summer, but when the temperatures are hotter keep them well-watered. An island bed planted with a butterfly bush (or several) will help attract these lovely pollinators. Other places to use them include perennial beds and borders and cottage or wildlife gardens.

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia) has become very popular due to the growing interest in butterfly gardens. These beautiful shrubs make attractive landscape plants, and are known to be magnets for butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects.

Landowners who do not want to remove their butterfly bushes are strongly urged to dead head all flowers, to prevent their plants from contributing to the unintended spread of this species. Seedlings can be removed by hand-pulling. Larger plants can be dug out.

What is the problem with Buddleia? ›

Buddlejas are generally problem-free, but watch out for late frosts on less tough species. In cold, waterlogged conditions, you may find that even the hardy buddleja (B. davidii) will fail. This is largely due to the roots rotting in the wet soil over winter.

Butterfly bush (Buddleia sp.), a bright bloomer loved by pollinators, flowers in summer. It tends to grow in an arching form and, depending on the variety, produces either flower spikes or bloom clusters in a wide variety of colors.

Liquid fertilizers (such as Miracle Gro) are mixed with water and applied the same as you would water the plant (see product for specific details). This should be done three or four times per year starting in late April and ending in mid July. Stake type fertilizers can be used following the directions on the package.

But without regular pruning, butterfly bushes can become sparse, and flowering can diminish, leaving next to nothing for pollinators.

They can also be pruned in summer to encourage new blooms, or just to tame untidy growth. For non-dwarf butterfly bushes, cut back to 12 to 24 inches and remove any dead or broken branches. (Or cut back nearly to the ground. Butterfly bushes will still resprout and bloom!)

If your butterfly plant has been thriving but suddenly develops crispy brown tips, it might need repotting. This can happen when an indoor plant becomes root bound. Root bound conditions can happen when the plant has grown so many roots that there is no more room to expand.

Butterfly Bush strongly dislikes soggy or poorly-drained soils, so depending on the watering frequency or water flow near this planting bed, they may be getting too wet. When roots are deprived of oxygen from soggy conditions, they die back and can become infected, which results in a corresponding loss of branches.

Damage and Impact

Butterfly bush has the most ecological impact by displacing native plants when it escapes to natural areas. Once established in a natural area, butterfly bush can displace native plants. Native plants are important for pollinators because they provide them with a natural nectar source.