I've got 5 butterfly bushes. 4 of them were planted last fall. 1 is 4 years old. Due to the last big deep freeze, all of the new leaves have frozen and fallen off. All of them. On top of that, some of the branches on the newer plantings are brittle and just snap off. I pruned them heavily in early spring which is what I've done to the established one for the past 3 years. Do I wait and see what happens with them or do I just chalk it up to winter kill and buy 5 new ones?
Michael
Wait...and prune in time but be sure time is long. Look for brittle to your bending. IE they break when you bend them.
Bill
Just wait it out because you will probably also get new growth coming from the crown. It's still very early in the season for most parts of the country. Where are you?
I was told to cut mine off about 3 inches above the ground before the new growing season. The messages above lead me to believe that advice was wrong. What do you think?
Dwayne
Jangchub news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I'm in St. Louis Missouri. I'll ride it out and see what happens. I'm just antsy because I've not experienced a hard freeze like this here. Makes me nervous ;)
Michael
"Dwayne" news:81c81$4622c8d3$41a666bc$ snipped-for-privacy@st-tel.net:
I'm not sure which message you are refering to. When I bought my first one the Missouri Botanical Gardens reps told me to prune it very hard around the end of Feb or very early in March. I cut mine down to about 6 inches above the ground. It would seem to me the advice you got was correct. I do pretty much the same thing you do.
Michael
Out here they are very invasive. Don't know about St. Louis. To be on the safe side you might want to cut off the spent flowers before they go to seed.
In regards to your freeze, they should be fine and you will see new growth from the crown when it warms up.
Where are you? I don't expect to see life on my butterfly bushes until mid May.
Cheryl
"Travis M." wrote in news:XrCUh.1061 $jR5.859@trnddc08:
Where's "out here"?
I don't doubt what you say, but I question it. What are you caling butterfly bushes and where are you that it is invasive? In all my years of gardening I've never seen a butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) become invasive.
Cheryl Isaak news:C248CBAE.67D03% snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:
Saint louis, MO. I usually see life towards the latter part of March.
Michael
"Travis M." news:XrCUh.1061$jR5.859@trnddc08:
Hmmmm... Travis, where are you located? I wonder if there is a species of butterfly bush I'm not aware of. I've never had one that became invasive. Sure, mine get really big if not kept in check but never have they become invasive. Now my bee balm is invasive.
Michael
The message from Jangchub contains these words:
In the UK climate, buddleia davidii self seeds freely in the worst of growing conditions . It's common to see them growing out of cracks on old buildings and neglected roofs, pavements, and as weeds along railway embankments. They were one of the plants that rapidly colonised city bombsites during th war.
Janet.
"FragileWarrior"
From:
Come out this way and see for yourself.
Did you read my whole post including my .sig?
"Travis M." wrote in news:I%SUh.1265 $jR5.1166@trnddc08:
No. Never read sigs.
"Travis M." wrote in news:V4TUh.1267 $jR5.802@trnddc08:
Obviously that sig thingy doesn't work.
Interesting. I never had that happen either on Long Island or down here in Texas. Maybe you have the perfect clime.
Oh I believe you, I wanted to make sure we were talking about the same plant. Just because I never saw it reseed, I wasn't saying it didn't, only that I was questioning what you were referring to as butterfly bush. In the states I know of a few things with that common name.
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