I have a butterfly bush planted last summer that was just beautiful three weeks ago. Had lots of blooms on it. It all of a sudden has lost almost all it's leaves and the leaves had brown spots on them around the edges. It does look like it's getting a few new leaves but cannot figure out what happened to it. All the other plants and trees around it are doing fine. Someone said that I might have watered it too much. Any ideas on what to do to get this bush looking nice again would be appreciated. THANKS!

Buddleia davidii or Butterfly bush has arching stems of narrow gray-green leaves. The willow shaped leaves are dark green above and light green or gray beneath with tiny hairs. The growth habit of this small shrub and the leaf characteristics would make it a wonderful addition to your garden even if it didn’t have beautiful flowers.

The stems of the plant are tipped with long, conical clusters of tiny fragrant flowers. The flower color will range from whites to reds, pinks, and lavender to shades of purple so dark, one is even called “Black Knight”. There is even a yellow flowered cultivar called “Sungold.” Some of the davidii species have a characteristic orange center of the flower, hence the common name “Orange Eye Butterfly Bush.”

Butterflies love this plant! It’s not unusual to see clouds of butterflies covering the shrub on warm summer days. The flowers make great cut flowers for bouquets as well. And the more you cut, the more they come!

B. davidii can reach to 10 feet tall with 8-10 inch leaves if grown under ideal conditions. They prefer full sun and deep rich soil. The Butterfly bush is a vigorous pest free plant. They produce flowers on the current year’s growth, so they can be cut all the way back to ground level before new growth begins in spring. In severe winters, they make die back to the roots, but will resprout when temperatures warm. In mild winters, very little top growth may be lost, so they can be trimmed up slightly to remove wayward stems and winter-damaged twigs. This will produce a larger shrub.


My rule of thumb is that if you have plenty of room to let your butterfly bush reach its full growth potential, then wait until it starts to leaf out in the spring to trim it slightly (and of course prune throughout the growing season as you harvest flowers). If, on the other hand you have a smaller garden and want a more compact plant, then prune back to a foot or so in late winter or early spring.

Misplaced butterfly bushes can be transplanted in late fall through early spring. (Actually, I’ve had pretty good luck moving them in the summer months too. But because maintaining adequate water is more crucial then, success rates tend to be better during dormancy.) Because they bloom on new wood, they can be cut back severely if necessary to facilitate moving.

Although a butterfly bush can perform admirably in a garden for many years, on occasion, they will get the “upanddieds.” For no apparent reason, they will just up and die. Look at this as an opportunity to try a new cultivar as a replacement.

Another interesting little tidbit about the Buddleia: apparently somewhere along the way the botanical name was misspelled or mistanscribed, so occasionally you wil see the Latinized name spelled Buddleja.