How to Grow and Care for a Butterfly Bush (2024)

FAQs

How to Grow and Care for a Butterfly Bush? ›

Light: Butterfly bushes grow and flower best in full sun. They will grow fine in part shade, especially in warmer climates, but their flowering may be reduced. Soil: Butterfly Bushes are not particular about the soil conditions, as long as it drains well.

Light: Butterfly bushes grow and flower best in full sun. They will grow fine in part shade, especially in warmer climates, but their flowering may be reduced. Soil: Butterfly Bushes are not particular about the soil conditions, as long as it drains well.

Butterfly Bush Care

After they're established these plants are relatively drought-tolerant. Fertilizing isn't usually necessary, as it encourages foliage at the expense of flowers. You can prune your bushes anytime, and you will probably need to prune a few times each summer to keep them under control.

Butterfly bushes do not need to be pruned every year. In fact, you only need to prune them when they get too large for the space allotted. But since butterfly bushes only bloom on new growth many gardeners prune them severely each spring to encourage lots of new growth and lots of flowers.

Give your butterfly bush regular deep watering based on weather (more in peak heat or drought, for example) and prune it each spring. Assuming sun, rain, and pruning all come together, the bush should bloom fully and continuously throughout summer.

Left unpruned, large butterfly bushes can become “second story” plants: their flowers form way up at the top so you can't enjoy them unless you have a second story window. The warmer your climate, the more you should cut back your butterfly bush each spring.

Typically, a butterfly bush will live about 10 years. You may find some plants that live longer than that, but it's a rare case. Proper care of a butterfly bush will help it live longer and thrive in your garden.

Butterfly bushes should be cut back to a foot tall to promote new growth and the best blooms. You can cut the shrub back to ground level; however, you take the risk of late frost or freeze killing new growth and losing the plant. Hard pruning is done in late February or early March depending on your climate.

Butterfly Bush blooms from mid-summer to early fall. Flowers form drooping or upright spikes at the end of branches. The wild-origin species is white-flowered with orange or yellow centers.

Compost or bark mulch work well. If you are trying to promote over-wintering of the above ground parts of the plant, you can fence it in with hardware cloth or chicken wire and fill first with 3″ of compost and then to the top with clean straw. This can be removed in mid April or as the frost comes out of the ground.

Do butterfly bushes multiply? ›

After being introduced into the USA, the butterfly bush is today present and spreading in many regions, including Maryland. This species can reproduce so well, grows so fast, and importantly, has so few herbivores and diseases, that it is able to not only survive, but also spread into new areas at very high speed.

'In the spring, when you see new growth at the base, then you can take it down,' the expert adds. Meanwhile, if you have a dwarf butterfly bush, it is better to leave it untouched until the spring, once again, to allow for the winter kill. 'This is a long-lived plant in most cases, as deer and other critters avoid it.

Planting, Growing, and Pruning Butterfly Bushes

Planted in spring or fall before frost, this perennial will bloom from summer through autumn.

Consider these tips for getting your butterfly bush blooming, or reblooming. You need to prune it back: The butterfly bushes' blooms will only grow on new wood. An occasional, thorough haircut in early spring will entice it to grow back to its full glory.

Butterfly bushes do best when planted in early spring or summer, but when the temperatures are hotter keep them well-watered. An island bed planted with a butterfly bush (or several) will help attract these lovely pollinators. Other places to use them include perennial beds and borders and cottage or wildlife gardens.

While butterfly bushes can provide aesthetic appeal due to their deep purple, pink, or white flower spikes and can attract adult butterflies, their aggressive growth and potential to become invasive can make them a problematic choice in many gardens, especially in areas close to natural habitats.

If it's not in some place, chances are good it will be [at some point].” Beyond backyards, the plants spread to important ecosystems and protected areas. There's clear documentation of aggressive butterfly bush invasions in wildlife habitats.

You can complement a large Buddleia with ground cover plants like Ice Plant or Phlox. Or choose flowers with contrasting colors and shapes, such as Mophead Hydrangeas or Bush Cinquefoil. And picking a few butterfly host species to plant with a Butterfly Bush makes your garden even more pollinator-friendly.