Butterfly Bush

The scientific name of the Butterfly bush is ‘Buddleia’ pronounced ‘bud-lee-ah’ and they are also known as summer lilac. You just have to look at the flowers of these bushes to understand as to why they have been so named. The bushes are a magnet for all the butterflies that fly around looking for nectar. There are more than 100 species and many butterfly gardeners plan their gardens around the Buddleia.

The butterfly bushes are perennial in nature and hence they can also be used to form a medium to large sized hedge. However, these bushes are not neat and tidy and require a lot of maintenance and up keep. Another reason as to why these bushes are so popular is because they are very easy to grow. The tolerate pollution and almost all types of soil. They are also pest free with the exception of spider mite infestations during stress or drought. These bushes flourish marvelously when kept in a sunny spot, well drained soil, a little fertilizer during the spring and some deep watering during the summers.

General Appearance

Out of the 100 species of the butterfly bushes, most are shrubs while very few are trees. The largest of the species reach a height of about 30 meters but most shrubs do not exceed 5 meters. They are either evergreen or deciduous.

In most species, the leaves are lanceolate and are arranged in opposite pairs on the stem. The length of the leaves vary from 1 – 30 cm. The flowers are 10 – 50 cm long and are produced in dense panicles. The corolla of the flower is spread into four lobes and each individual flower is 1 cm long and tubular in shape. The common colors seen in the flowers are white, pink, red, purple, orange and yellow. The flowers are also rich in color and are usually strongly scented. The fruits of the butterfly bush are in the shape of small capsules and are 1 cm long and about 2 mm in diameter. They contain innumerable seeds. In some species of the butterfly bush, the capsule is soft and fleshy like a berry.

The blossoms of the butterfly bush appear like lilac clusters which can almost be two feet in length. The blossoms are spectacular and after a rainfall the narrow branches that support the blossoms droop to the ground. It is advisable to keep a distance of six feet between the bushes to keep a neat appearance and enjoy the beauty of the blossoms.

The plants mulch during the fall. The gardeners usually cut back the shrubs to a foot high in later winter just before the new growths appear. This enables the shrubs attain a very good height by midsummer and the flowers are much larger and neater looking in shape.

Selected List of Butterfly Bush

Here is a list of some of the most famous and common varieties of the butterfly bushes:

• Buddleia Dartmoor: The flowering side shoots of this variety of butterfly bush give a bushy shape to the clusters of flowers which are either pink or purple in color and are blackberry scented.
• Buddleia Crispa: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom in late spring and early summer. The flowers are pink in color with an orange eye and appear in small clusters. The leaves are heart shaped with serrated edges.
• Buddleia Globosa: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom in early summer. They have round clusters of flowers that are orange in color and the leaves are large and leathery.
• Buddleia Asiatica: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom in warm climate. The flowers are white in color and are cut neatly. The leaves are rather large and felted in nature.
• Buddleia Fallowiana: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom during midsummer. The flowers are either lavender or blue in color.
• Buddleia
• Buddleia Lochinch: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom in later summer or early fall and have lavender or blue colored flowers with an orange eye. The leaves have a silvery shade.
• Buddleia Macrostachya: The butterfly bushes of this variety bloom during the middle or late summer. The clusters of flowers are long, drooping and lavender in color.