How to Grow Butterfly Bush

Series Summary

Flowers are your friends. That big smile from daisies, the warm feeling you get from carnations, even skull-faced poppies keep you company. But when wintertime arrives, all of these friends go away, replaced by withered stalks that act as constant reminders that you are chilly and miserable, not to mention abandoned by your brightly colored pals. What you need is a new set of friends, ones who will not leave you out in the cold when winter comes along. What you need are perennials, plants which stick around for more than just one season.

In this series of free gardening videos, our greenthumb expert Martha Cycz introduces you to whole new circle of friends, ones with exotic titles like Bretisia, Echinacea and Dicentia. But don't let the sophisticated names fool you: these are very approachable plants, ones which will return your affection year around. And just might summon a butterfly or two when they're feeling just right. Martha will tell you how to plant and care for these perennials so that you may develop rewarding relationships with all of them.

Video Transcript

"One of my favorite plants that I like to talk about is called the butterfly bush and as you can see here by this brilliant color purple that the butterflies just love this. By simple the color they love like bright reds, bright purples and last September I remember looking at this one time and there where four different types of butterflies on it. So they really enjoy the bush, they enjoy the color, there are several kind of butterfly bushes there are brilliant pink one's, soft pink one's, so what ever your color scheme might be you can decide which color works the best for you. This one happens to grow to about 6 feet tall and it does fit in nicely in a edging type of garden plant. Other things can go in front of it and the butterflies do manage to find it wherever you put it so this is one of those very easy to grow must have in your garden. "