BUDDLEIA - THE BUTTERFLY BUSH

The most popular and undemanding varieties are Buddleia davidii. These originally came from China where they can be found happily growing in the gravel on river islands. This goes a long way to explain their success in railway tracks and demolition sites all over Britain. The lesson to be learned is not to make them too comfortable and plant in well-drained soil in a sunny position. The flowers are borne on new wood grown in the same year so prune back hard in the early spring and let nature do the rest. As a group they are both vigorous and relatively trouble-free. You would think that these two assets alone would make them highly prized but life doesn’t seem to work that way and buddleias tend to be treated as poor relations in the plant world, seemingly because they have minimum requirements and will grow in most situations.

I had two buddleias in my last garden, still much missed, one a pink charmer with variegated leaves and the other that most dramatic of its kind, Black Knight. The latter was given to me many years ago as an unpromising looking ‘stick’. I was told to plant it and see what happened. The following spring I was delighted to see leaves sprouting and by summer it was bearing a few flowering spikes. It went on from strength to strength and every year gave a magnificent display of beautiful dark purple flowers, much loved by butterflies.

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