Taming the butterfly bush will generate a flutter in the borders
Forget its unfair reputation as a fast-growing weed – with a little care and attention the buddleia can provide a delightful and attractive garden haven for butterflies, says Arthur Parkinson
The wild Buddleia davidii is well known, thanks to its pioneering will to thrive within our man-made landscapes. Given the chance, this fastgrowing shrub will quickly establish itself and, given the chance, flourishing forests of it would grow up and down the country for miles. They would quickly transform our railway tracks into silver-leaved thickets, like a scene from Sleeping Beauty complete, of course, with magical hazes of butterflies dancing above them.
Thanks to each of its candelabra, wizard-hat-pointed flowers, the buddleia’s seduction of butterflies guarantees its wildlife-friendly reputation. This age-old relationship between plant and insect has earned the buddleia its universal common name of butterfly bush, a joyful title that rolls off the tongue.
It is well earnt, as just a few plants will reliably entice the presence of these insects. Each bloom contains thousands of tiny, individual flowers within it and each corolla tube is packed full of nectar. Flowering en masse from July, these blooms create a Love-Island-like cocktail bar for any visiting vanessids, most notably those glamazons, the peacocks, red admirals and painted ladies.
One of the most beautiful things to experience on a sunny summer’s day is being swept up within a cloud of flirting butterflies as they take to the air from feeding on these flowers – all school playgrounds and care homes should surely have a buddleia border for precisely this reason.
Britain would be a less flamboyant and alive place without this native of China. They jazz up embankments and wastelands at large. When I lived in Stoke-on-Trent, buddleia-rich brownfield sites were plentiful. I would pick hundreds of their honeycomb smelling flowers each June and July for parties. I came to know many huge buddleia bushes over the years here and, as a thank you, I would coppice them annually.
The bushes thrived at being adopted. Note the word “coppice”, as this is the key requirement of having buddleias in the garden. They should be treated like shrub roses, and be given a hard prune each spring to encourage vigour and instil good behaviour. This is all that is needed to keep the large cultivars at a modest size and is a quick and satisfying job that can be carried out with either strong secateurs or a small handsaw. Such pruning should be done every March to April. Reduce the plant height by more than half, going down to a pair of fresh buds, leaving about 15in of the stem from the ground up. This might sound harsh, but remember that these shrubs flower on new, not old growth.
The large growing varieties, including the midnight blackcurrantcordial-flowered ‘Black Knight’, awarded an AGM in 1993 very deservedly, will thrive on this annual pruning and the flowers will be at easier smelling height, too.
Prevent self-seeding with a weekly deadheading: snip off the flowers as each begins to frazzle and turn brown. This is a job worth doing as it will encourage continued flowering, albeit the later flowers will be smaller than the first flush.
A neighbour has self-seeded buddleia in the top of a brick wall at the back of her garden. Each spring, I climb up to cut them back. By June, they have grown into a silver-leaved hedge that blocks out the view of the terraces beyond; pruning can really turn a buddleia into a useful plant.
However, people still love to scoff at buddleias as weeds, despite the ease of taming them, their droughtresistance and butterfly appeal. Indeed, I should mention that they are a recognised invasive for chalk wildflower meadows and rail networks. I have yet to suggest planting one to anyone and be met with excitement.
The exception to this is my grandma, who loves a butterfly bush. My grandad would never let her grow one, alas buddleia fear had gripped him very deeply. This is understandable; shifting set views on certain plants is a hard task and so, in recent years, smaller growing cultivars have been bred which cannot fail to tempt even the most fearful to give them a try. See the box, left, for more on the Buzz range of buddleias from Thompson & Morgan.
Britain would be a less flamboyant and alive place without this native of China
I came to know many huge buddleia bushes and, as a thank you, I would coppice them