How to Prune a Butterfly Bush
Wait for the right time of year to prune., Look for any dieback., Prune your butterfly bush with a hard cut., Dead-head the spent blooms while the plant is flowering., Remove spent blooms at the end of the season.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Wait for the right time of year to prune.
There are two types of butterfly bushes:
Buddleia davidii and Buddleia alternifolia.Prune your Buddleia davidii in early spring.
If you had a particularly mild winter, or live in a warmer climate, you could also choose to prune your butterfly bush in late winter.
To tell when to prune, look for signs of new growth on the lower stems near the ground.
Buddleia alternifolia should be pruned in mid to late summer, right after it has bloomed.
This kind of butterfly bush blooms on stems from the previous year.
It blooms in spring. -
Step 2: Look for any dieback.
Dieback is caused by harsh winters or disease.
In this case, a particularly cold winter could cause dieback in your butterfly bush.
When a plant dies back, the tips of the leaves or roots begin to die, slowly leading to a reverse death that ends in the death of the whole plant.
Dieback is common in butterfly bushes in colder climates--butterfly bushes often dieback all the way to their roots in very cold winters.
However, this does not mean that they cannot be saved--that’s what pruning is for.Butterfly bushes are late to break dormancy, meaning that you don’t need to check for any winter damage as the plant may still just be dormant. , Because they do often dieback in the winter, butterfly bushes can handle intense pruning--and often require it.
You should prune your butterfly bushes to about a foot from ground level.
Use pruning shears to cut the bush back to about one-third of its size.If your butterfly bush is in the back of a garden up against a fence and you want it to grow tall, cut it back to about two feet so that the plant will produce higher growing (and thus flowering) stems.
You will then be able to plant lower growing plants near the butterfly bush while still being able to see the flowers of the butterfly bush. , This means that you should pick or cut the flowers that have died while the bush continues to bloom.
Spent blooms will start to turn brown and will look very wilted.
Cut the dead blooms back to where they attach to the stem.
Doing this will ensure that your bush produce new flower buds longer into the blooming season than they would if the bush was left unattended., At the end of the season, you should dead-head all of the now finished blooms.
This will help the plant along when creating buds for the next year.
It will also limit the butterfly bush’s chances of self-seeding and thus taking over your entire garden. -
Step 3: Prune your butterfly bush with a hard cut.
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Step 4: Dead-head the spent blooms while the plant is flowering.
-
Step 5: Remove spent blooms at the end of the season.
Detailed Guide
There are two types of butterfly bushes:
Buddleia davidii and Buddleia alternifolia.Prune your Buddleia davidii in early spring.
If you had a particularly mild winter, or live in a warmer climate, you could also choose to prune your butterfly bush in late winter.
To tell when to prune, look for signs of new growth on the lower stems near the ground.
Buddleia alternifolia should be pruned in mid to late summer, right after it has bloomed.
This kind of butterfly bush blooms on stems from the previous year.
It blooms in spring.
Dieback is caused by harsh winters or disease.
In this case, a particularly cold winter could cause dieback in your butterfly bush.
When a plant dies back, the tips of the leaves or roots begin to die, slowly leading to a reverse death that ends in the death of the whole plant.
Dieback is common in butterfly bushes in colder climates--butterfly bushes often dieback all the way to their roots in very cold winters.
However, this does not mean that they cannot be saved--that’s what pruning is for.Butterfly bushes are late to break dormancy, meaning that you don’t need to check for any winter damage as the plant may still just be dormant. , Because they do often dieback in the winter, butterfly bushes can handle intense pruning--and often require it.
You should prune your butterfly bushes to about a foot from ground level.
Use pruning shears to cut the bush back to about one-third of its size.If your butterfly bush is in the back of a garden up against a fence and you want it to grow tall, cut it back to about two feet so that the plant will produce higher growing (and thus flowering) stems.
You will then be able to plant lower growing plants near the butterfly bush while still being able to see the flowers of the butterfly bush. , This means that you should pick or cut the flowers that have died while the bush continues to bloom.
Spent blooms will start to turn brown and will look very wilted.
Cut the dead blooms back to where they attach to the stem.
Doing this will ensure that your bush produce new flower buds longer into the blooming season than they would if the bush was left unattended., At the end of the season, you should dead-head all of the now finished blooms.
This will help the plant along when creating buds for the next year.
It will also limit the butterfly bush’s chances of self-seeding and thus taking over your entire garden.
About the Author
Patricia Armstrong
Enthusiastic about teaching pet care techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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