Buddlieas care

Good morning guys

I purchased and planted these buddlieas in September last year, I understand buddlieas need to be cut back in spring.. Are these too young.. Any advice on their care this year please?

 

@Appleblossom31 No, they are far too small to prune this Spring IMO, since pruning is around late Feb/early March. I would probably prune next Spring, but even that depends on the expected eventual height of the plants and how much growth your particular plants put on by then. What sort are they Appleblossom, 'Buzz' buddleias? I usually don't even start pruning those until they reach about 1 and 3/4 to 2ft in height and then prune harder and harder the larger the plant gets, cutting down to a third of its height for a mature plant.

Nick

 

Well in my experience buddleias are almost impossible to kill. They grow on the side of train tracks on 100% pure gravel and debris.
You can prune them or even cut them down entirely and they will bounce back. Drowning seems the only reliable way to permanently kill them off.

So the only thing I do with mine is cut off the flowery bits after they stopped blooming and a week later they produced two new buds. And if they get too large I just cut them wherever I see fit, just do watch them sprout once more

 

I almost lost a late winter flowering buddleja last year, over the summer it just started to die and the bark almost fell off; possibly phytophora or some other fungal disease. I took some cuttings, one of which rooted and is currently in the greenhouse and has flower buds on it.
It is a good idea to remove the flower spikes as they finish, to encourage the smaller flower spikes to develop.

 

Feral Buddleja davidii have a reputation for being tough – it's just so happens they like contaminated railway ballast and concrete demolition rubble. They're not so tolerant of water-logged clay soils and are prone to water moulds like Phytophthora. Other species are even more sensitive, as are some of the cultivars and modern hybrids. So how you treat a Buddleja plant depends very much on the cultivar/species and the soil conditions.
The new miniature Buddleja hybrids are not tough. They're often highly hybridised or else inbred to produce unnaturally congested growth habits, and this means you can't treat them like a feral Buddleja. More significantly, some like Flutterby Flow and the Dreaming plants are bred for container growing; they'll need little pruning beyond removing winter die-back. Some fail miserably if treated like a tough ol'Buddleja.
I wouldn't prune any Buddleja until April and until it was at least knee height. The ones shown in the photos are way too small to need pruning and should be left alone.

 

I planted one a few years back a ‘Black Knight’ ( or possibly a Black Night) but anyway it looked healthy for a couple of years and then just died, so wasn’t tempted to plant another one.It was in a south facing sandy soil.I have always wanted a globe buddleja, but have heard they get very large.

 

Thanks Armandii, that’s very useful to know.They’re such attractive shrubs, have always wanted one.