How to Grow Beautiful Butterfly Bushes

When you start or purchase a potted butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), you know that to achieve its full growth and production that you will have to plant and care for it properly. These plants will grow between 5 to 10 feet high and wide. Healthy bushes produce a profusion of flowers in midsummer and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Getting a good start is important for how well your butterfly bush will do over the seasons.

Things You'll Need

• Spade
• Compost
• Organic mulch
• Stake and tie
• Pruning shears

Instructions

1. Find an area that gets full sun and has moist, well-drained soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Remember that you can change the soil situation if need be, but the sun is a requirement for your butterfly bush to grow and thrive. Butterfly bushes do best when planted in the spring or fall.

2. Dig a hole that with the spade that is the same depth and double the width of the pot the bush is in. Break up clumps of dirt and loosen the sides and bottom of the hole. This gives the roots room to spread and get into the soil.

3. Remove the bush from the pot and place it in the hole with the top of the root ball level with the surface. Add a mixture of soil and compost all around the root ball, making sure to hold it level while the soil fills in around it. Once the hole is filled, add more compost around the base of the plant and tamp it down firmly.

4. Water thoroughly and place a 2-inch layer of organic mulch around the plant to help retain moisture, stop weeds and provide nutrients to the soil as it decomposes. Keep the mulch a couple of inches away from the stem of the bush.

5. Water the butterfly bush only if there is no rain for more than three days. You will know when it needs moisture by the drooping leaves and branches. Since these bushes grow quickly, you may want to stake or tie the first long shoots so that they grow upward instead of falling over before they get strong enough to remain upright on their own.

6. Prune the bushes back in early spring. Butterfly bushes bloom on new wood, so you want to prune the bushes back so that new starts will begin. You can even prune back to 1 foot tall and will still get an abundance of blooms.

Tips & Warnings

• Butterfly bushes are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture zones 5 through 9, but could die back in very cold weather. It will rebloom in spring.

References

• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Butterfly Bush
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Attract Butterflies: Plant Butterfly Bushes