Subject: Re: Butterfly bush

From: Ed Karch <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Mar 1995 05:10:56 GMT

[email-masked] (Randy Thompson) wrote:
>
> 
> I planted a butterfly bush in march of 1994 and it bloomed all summer. My
> question is how far down to the soil should I trim it back? 

I trimmed mine in the fall to about 6-10". It now has new shoots starting.
I lost one the winter before that didn't get trimmed but the winter was bad.

Ed

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From: [email-masked] (Christine Owens)
Date: 25 Mar 1995 17:00:41 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Randy Thompson) writes: 

>question is how far down to the soil should I trim it back? Will the roots
>develope stalks on there own? I have sprouts from all around the base of
>the bush that look like leaves from it but it is still too early to tell
>yet. Any help would be great.
>
>Thanks
>

It really depends on what kind of buddelia you have.  Some are
pruned back hard, others lightly.

Chris Owens

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From: Terry Ballantyne <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Mar 1995 17:27:33 GMT

I planted one of these two summers ago and have never trimmed it 
the branches that look dead are dormant and leaves will grow out   
of them. I live in western Colorado and the leaves are already   
out on mine. In about a month if there are branches with leaves   
I'll trim those. 
Terry Ballantyne

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From: [email-masked] (DTDerekson)
Date: 2 Apr 1995 00:57:04 -0500

My experiences also support the "wait and see what develops in the spring"
approach. Buddelias theoretically die back to the ground in the cold, and
I found that if I pruned in the fall, they really did die back to the
ground and I even lost one. I wait until they are pushing new growth in
the spring and until I can recognize what the bush thinks it is going to
do.  Then I prune off what is obviously dead at that time and and shape
what is left.

Good luck! You can propogate them from cuttings fairly easily too, if you
lament of cutting off new shoots....