Pruning Buddlija

back to my new garden. I have Buddlija davidii that needs a darn good prune. I am loathe to cut them down to the ground as such as the books suggest. I have started dead heading and trimming dead diseased and crossed branches. is there really any need to prune down as much as the books suggest?

is there any benefit to flowering? I will be taking plenty of cuttings to fill the garden with shrubs as I love attracting butterflies

CJ.:cnfs:

 

I think you prune them back to a framework of sturdy branches and the new growth (and thus flowering buds) grow out from this.

 

I've seen it trained as a small tree, but not sure how you would do that. It grows so fast I reckon it would be high maintenance.

The reason most people chop it right back to next to nowt is because it grows back so quickly and puts out tonnes of new flowers. If it was chopped right down now, it would be back within a few weeks, bushier than ever, and by summer it will be loaded with flowers.

 

all mine are chopped down to a foot, cuttings in the beds for propation, every Autumn. They regrow and the butterflies love em. Go for it.

 

We have a big one in our garden been there years . I do tend to be a bit heavy handed with it , as I am with most of the pruning. :hehe:
I cut mine back at least half to 2 thirds after flowering in the autumn, but it as been cut to the ground and grew back O.K
I have never cut it in the spring.
If you don't cut them back they go to tall and springly.

 

Buddleja is one of those fast growing shrubs that some describe as a weed, because it self-seeds everywhere. During WWII they were known as "bomb plants" because they popped up on sites where buildings had been demolished and the seeds were thought to have been inside the shell cases. A nice myth but sadly untrue. Buddleja is is well apapted to colonising newly uncovered soil, in inhospitable places. (Look how well they grow along high level railway lines into London for instance).

The books suggest that you cut it down in late Autumn/Winter, by about a third to prevent wind rock then by another third in late Winter/early Spring. However, I've found you can chop them down hard, anytime in that is period as they grow back so quickly. The idea is once you have produced a framework of branches to suit the site, keep it to that shape with an annual prune. And you're right MoL, the butterfiles love it, hence the name "Butterfly Bush". Enjoy it Benacre!:gnthb:
Chris www.chrisodonoghue.co.uk

 

"is there really any need to prune down as much as the books suggest?"

I reckon. We cut ours down to almost nothing each year.

 

Cut it right back, those books tell you that for a good reason.

 

Ok well I am now going out with the Felco's. Thanks for the psycological support. LOL

 

Be brave Benacre, be brave.

 

I have a standard budd and I chop it right back in the late winter and it always come back vigourously with plenty of flower heads.

 

My buddleia is in the chickens run, so I'm hoping this year to remove its protective fence and leave it to grow wild. But I'll keep chopping it back to a framework, well above chicken head height!

 

Well it's been done now. So thats it, no turning back )

 

Have a stiff drink if you need to recover:D

 

I have four buds. in the garden. Last year I left one unpruned just to see. It didn't flower nearly as well. They are all for a severe chopping shortly.