How to Keep Your Butterfly Bush Blooming | Eising Garden Centre (2024)

FAQs

How to keep butterfly bushes blooming? ›

Pruning and Deadheading

Deadheading your plants means snipping off any browning flower clusters to encourage more flowering though the bloom season. Butterfly bushes bloom best on younger, vigorous growth and later in the season.

For older varieties of butterfly bush, it can be helpful to deadhead them to keep them from dropping viable seeds and to help quicken or promote rebloom.

A. Coffee grounds are a good source of slow-release nitrogen. They can be worked directly into the soil around your plants or added to your compost heap.

Organic fertilizers, like manure, can also be used with good results. The material should be worked into open soil at a rate of one bushel per one 6′ shrub or 100 sq. ft. of bed area.

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.

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.

But without regular pruning, butterfly bushes can become sparse, and flowering can diminish, leaving next to nothing for pollinators. So keep pruning to keep the butterflies coming to your garden for years to come!

“Rejuvenation pruning” really means cutting the plant down to its base. It should be done in early spring but should not be done every single year. Not all plants appreciate rejuvenation pruning, but some that respond well are Butterfly Bush, Blue Mist Spirea, Dogwood, Spirea, Forsythia, and Rose of Sharon.

Butterfly Bush benefits pollinators but only at one stage of their life cycle. It attracts butterflies because it provides copious nectar. However, butterflies need host plants on which to lay eggs and on which their caterpillars feed. Not a single native caterpillar eats Butterfly Bush leaves.

What time of year do you cut back butterfly bushes? ›

Regarding your butterfly bush (Buddlia), you are safe to prune it at either time as long as it is late winter moving into early spring. Avoid pruning though in early winter. The reason being, the stems are hollow and any water that accumulates in the stem and subsequently freezes will cause the wood to split.

Light: Butterfly bushes grow and flower best in full sun. They will grow fine in part shade, especially in warmer climates, but their flowering may be reduced. Soil: Butterfly Bushes are not particular about the soil conditions, as long as it drains well. Poorly-drained soils can cause root rot.

Butterfly bush roots do not like to sit in wet soil, especially during cooler evenings. The plants can handle short periods of drought once they are mature. After the shrub is established, water most varieties at least weekly when temperatures soar above 85 degrees. Again, the key is deep watering.

Mulch. While many outdoor landscape plants benefit from light mulching around the root system, Butterfly Bushes are not one of these plants. Avoid mulching too much around the base of this plant because it can often lead to the plant retaining too much moisture and cause root rot.

Butterfly bush is best planted in the spring or fall. If planting in fall, make sure to get them in the ground well before first frost in order to develop a good root system before colder temperatures set in.

Butterfly bush bloom on new wood so as long as you have plenty of sunlight, you'll get lots of blooms throughout the summer by pruning in the spring. Butterfly bushes do not need to be pruned every year. In fact, you only need to prune them when they get too large for the space allotted.

When your Butterfly Bush's blooms start to fade away, it's a sign of distress. Reduced flowering and stunted growth can indicate environmental stress or nutritional deficiencies. Leaf scorching is a telltale sign of too much sun or heat stress. It's not just a tan; it's damaging to your plant's health.

Butterfly Bush blooms from mid-summer to early fall. Flowers form drooping or upright spikes at the end of branches. The wild-origin species is white-flowered with orange or yellow centers.