How to Prune Butterfly Bushes

To get the most from your butterfly bushes, learn how to properly prune them. Pruning helps keep them growing strong for years to come. Butterfly bushes make a great addition to any garden, with their beautifully colored blooms that attract hoards of lovely butterflies each year. With regular pruning done correctly at the right time of year, your butterfly bushes will be better than ever.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pruning shears
• Gloves

1. Cut the butterfly bush branches back with pruning shears during the fall, until they stand 3 or 4 feet from the ground. This cuts the bush back enough to keep it from getting ruined by harsh winter weather, but keeps it long enough so that it does not have to grow so much to recover from the pruning. Butterfly bushes are fairly hardy bushes and can withstand the cold without being cut to the ground.

2. Trim off dead branches with pruning shears in the early spring. Allow plenty of time for your butterfly bush to begin growing and flowering again after the winter before doing this. Some limbs may need time to recover from winter and they may look dead, but if you cut the branches too early, you may be trimming branches that are not really dead.

3. Prune the branches of your butterfly bush into a pleasing shape during the spring. As time progresses and your butterfly bush recovers from the winter, it will begin to grow rapidly. Trimming the branches with pruning shears every few weeks will keep your butterfly bush keep the desired shape.

4. Remove dead blooms as soon as they have lost their color to encourage new growth and flowering on your butterfly bush.

5. Fertilize and continue to prune your butterfly bush as needed to ensure it has a long growing life (see Resources).

Tips & Warnings

• Wear gloves to protect your hands when pruning of your butterfly bush.
• It is not necessary to cut your butterfly bush back all the way to the ground during the winter.
• Use caution when working with pruning shears.

Resources

• Butterfly bush information