The world’s most wonderful weed
Once they were hated, but today butterfly-luring buddleias are a must-have for every gardener
SOME people collect stamps or play a musical instrument. But as a young man I had a rather more unusual pastime… I was probably the nation’s only buddleia spotter. It gave me great pleasure to catch sight of these shrubs running riot through wasteland or sprouting from cracked brickwork on a building.
My quarry were logged in a hand-written journal, along with some arty photos. Alas, my ambition of turning it into a coffee-table book was never realised.
I’m not sure what sparked my fascination with buddleias, but I know that its tendency to self-seed is one reason why a lot of gardeners give this ‘weed’ a wide berth.
But don’t be put off this wonderful plant. Buddleias are easy to control with some deft pruning, and modern breeding has led to varieties that don’t self-seed. Another complaint is that buddleias are too vigorous for small gardens. Again, all they need is pruning, and there are even dwarf ones available nowadays.
In return, buddleias will provide a gorgeous summer display with their white, pink, red, purple, orange and yellow blooms that come in many shapes and sizes, from dense, conical heads to small, globular pom-poms. All are rich in nectar, attracting bees and butterflies. Late spring is the perfect time to plant young, pot-grown buddleias. They will tolerate light shade but will produce more flowers in a sunny spot.
The first buddleia, davidii, arrived here in 1896 from China. Commonly known as butterfly bush, it became a popular garden plant. Today, breeding has provided many attractive varieties of davidii, such as purplish ‘Nanho Blue’ and snowy ‘White Profusion’. B. davidii ‘Wisteria Lane’ is a fairly new one, with 20in-long violet flower heads that hang pendulously like wisteria.
Introduced in the 1960s, B. davidii ‘Harlequin’ is one of a handful noted for its foliage. This sport of ‘Royal Red’ boasts green and cream variegated leaves and purple-red flowers.
Taller buddleias make great focal points or can be used to add height and bulk to a bed or border. Some make excellent wall shrubs, and I’ve even seen buddleia hedges in wildlife gardens – unfortunately, their open habit means they don’t provide privacy or screen eyesores. In recent years there has been a glut of compact forms suitable for smaller gardens or pots. Described as the world’s first patio buddleia, ‘Blue Chip’ forms a 2ft mound covered with small, bluish-purple flowers. Launched in 2009, it paved the way for several others, including ‘White Chip’ and ‘Purple Chip’.
THE Buzz series of buddleias will reach 4ft in the ground and only half that when grown in a container, yet they still produce full-size flowers. Dwarf forms are perfect in 12in pots filled with soil-based compost. Keep the compost damp and feed regularly during the growing season. Plants will fill their allocated space within a couple of years and need moving into larger containers.
Keep dwarf buddleias in good shape by removing fading flowers and reducing the height of plants in the spring. Taller ones need tougher treatment – snip tips of stems that carried flowers to prevent self-seeding, then in March, cut back hard all shoots to leave two buds above the darker, older growth.