bUDDLEIA

Up until last Saturday I had a beautiful Buddleia growing in my garden. We are building a new workshop/come greenhouse, and had to move the Buddleia, it has since gone from a beautiful flowering tree to a withered stick. Yesterday I could look at it no longer and took my secatures to it, my question is will it come back to life or have we murdered it?
thanks for any help!
Cherry

 

Water it and feed and keep it watered til it re-establishes. Did you cut it back before you replanted it. That could help but you won't know for certain for a while yet - keep an eye out for signs of new growth.

 

Hi Fran, no we moved it then because it was obviously in some sort of shock I cut it back in the hope it would help it. All the leaves went withered and the flowers went brown from a beautiful purple. thanks for advice
Cherry

 

If anything can recover then a buddleia can, they can re sprout from cutting back to old wood and are often seen growing out of cracks in brick walls....I think its depending on surviving the initial move

 

If I 'deadhead' the buddleia will it have a second crop of flowers? The flowers seem to have died off very quickly this year - due to the poor weather I expect. :rolleyes:

 

Next door have a white buddleia flowering its head off so I don't see why not

 

I think a little TLC could be the cure ...although I'm not sure if they like being moved..

My budleia wasn't doing very well as I'd kept it in a pot.. well it was only little at the time.. but it was severly root bound and instead of planting it in the soil to florish.. she cut the entire thing off at the base.. *snip* dead plant...

I was gutted.. I hope you manage to get yours going again, although you probably won't be able to tell until next year. It might have been a little too early in the season to prune as everything is gathering nutrients for next year..

Fingers crossed tho

(first post and I'm wafflign already.. sorry)

 

I've had 2 budlias growing from cuttings taken at this time of the year and just stuck in the ground. In my experience they root easily and grow rapidly. They become very stragely and you have to keep them well pruned back or they will get too big and wont be able to hold their own weight up. I had to cut one back after a neighbours overgrown leylandy came down in a gale and smashed it. Knowing how tuff they are I cut it back really hard and it died off. I love the bushes and the butterflies they bring but I've come to the conclusion you need to keep renewing them each year from cuttings as they have a limited lifespan and overgrow their position and exhaust themselves very quickly.

 

I think buddleia must be one of the toughest plants around. Where I work in an old builders yard (its the yard thats old not the buiders) they grow out of the brickwork and on the rooves.
They seed everywhere, I did hear that they spread around the country via the railways, growing in the ballast around the tracks, after being introduced from China, Buddleia Davidii that is. Dont know if anyone else has heard this.

 

i have always been told that is how they spread; to anyone who enjoys wildlife gardening plant a variety called [weyeriana] all varieties are good but every bee and butterfly in a 2 mile radius it seems just have to be on it :D :D

 

I had to move a rather large buddleja Weyeriana, I cut it back very hard and watered it well for the remainder of the year. The following year it grew like mad and flowered beautifully. Main points to remember seem to be 1. remove as much foliage as possible and 2. keep well watered until it settles in.

 

jordi
I have a white budlia and take the flowers off when they are nearly all spent and I've never known it reflower.I also take it down to about 2 foot high in spring,it is up to approx 12ft now.

 

Hi
Try scratching the bark - if its green underneath, it wil regrow, if its brown then its a goner I'm afraid :( Check out my reply in the link below re lavatera - same principle applies at this time of year (best time to move plants is spring or autumn
http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000795;p=1#000006
I have Buddleja daviddi "Black Knight" & B weyeriana - this second one is truly a magnet for wildlife (inc hummingbird hawkmoths!), and really tough. Pete - I've heard the railway story, + they were named for Reverend Buddle! Bear in mind, they need sun to do well, and flower better in well drained conditions.

 

Absolutely true! Saw a documentary on this some while back. Apparently the wind from passing trains blows the seed along the track (as with many other wild plants). According to that prog, it can be quite a problem.

 

Glad to here others have heard the same story. Here are some actually growing out of the mortar joints of the brickwork. These old buildings are over 100yrs old, and are just across the road from a railway line. Believe it or not they actually flower quite well in early summer before they dry out too much, but they rarely die, even in the dryest spell.
I think that proves the "well drained" theory Bayleaf.

[ 17. August 2005, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]