I have a butterfly bush (Buddleia) that has been beautiful the past 2 years. This year it is dead. I have had a few others do this to me in the past. Is it a humidity issue? Too much/little water? Anybody else have this issue?
Butterfly bush question
If you could provide photos of the site or descriptives of your conditions that would be helpful. I have several and can't seem to kill them. In fact, they reseed. Mine do best in dry soil and receive no cultivation help except for severe Spring pruning. Humidity does not seem to influence them. Though I'd not say they are invasive, I'm over their rampant growth demands. I give away cuttings and seedlings of white, lavender and deep purple like crazy.
The soil is sandy, but I brought in good garden soil and I amend with mushroom compost and cow manure, as well as some bagged garden soil. I do used fertilizer, and it is on a sprinkler. This is a picture from last spring, I think, and the Buddleia is on the left of the Japanese maple. Not sure how good this picture shows it, but it was the best one I could find. I have a few others, and they are all beginning to leaf out. But not a peep from this one. Thanks.
Sorry, I chuckled, but mine have never lived in such rich digs. I've got several in Atlanta and several further north at the cottage. They all grow on steep slopes and get no care other than when they got stuck in the ground. No problems with chipmunks or voles? They can find opportunistic housing under the roots and the plant dies for lack of water in the hot months. Have you pulled your dead bush to look at the soil?
No, I have still been hoping for some new growth, but I am off tomorrow, and plan to do some yard work. We do have moles, but they don't seem to get up in the beds, mostly just the grass. I will check that out tomorrow.
Ok, rain all weekend, but much needed. Today, I put out 20 two cubic foot bags of mulch. I cut back everything off my butterfly bush, and there are two TINY bits of growth underneath. May just be a weed. But usually when something is dead, the roots will just break off, and these roots seem firmly "rooted" in the ground. I am going to give it a little bit longer, to see what happens.
They can go down to the ground and come back quickly. One piece of advice I can offer is some shrubs should not be cut in winter because they don't tolerate exposed green wood in cold or wet weather. Rosemary is an example of a shrub that often doesn't make it through the winter if it is over harvested and green wood exposed. A lot of mulch can do in some shrubs rather than protect them from winter weather.
I think it will depend on the cultivar of butterfly bush how long it takes to recover from pruning. Mine were pruned in Feb and March and are showing a lot of green. Of course, even with the cold this year they never lost their leaves. I have one I waited to prune until last week and it is only showing a few spots of green, mainly at the bottom. Happytail, do you know what kind it is?
I think it is Miss Ruby, which is supposed to be a smaller growing variety.
That one is listed in DG plant files. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/237160/ Beautiful color. I only have one of the shorter varieties, Blue Chip (I think), and it stayed green all winter. It is a little more shaded than most in my yard. I really need to move it as it is too close to a fig tree.
I have blue chip also, and it stayed green for me too. I gave it a little haircut, and it is spitting out new growth.
Ok, I finally gave up and pulled it up. The large roots were brittle, and there were no little roots at all. I replaced it with "Miss Molly", another smaller growing variety.
You promise to keep us posted, yes?
Yes. This is a magenta colored bloomer. Hope it will be happier.
Is it possible to kill them with kindness? I thought that they were a drought tolerant type that did well in more alkaline soil?
Well, we certainly have acid soil here. I could add lime to make it more alkaline. But my Blue Chip is putting on globs of new leaves, but no buds? Wonder why?
Mine grow in acid soil with no ammendments. I pruned a wheelbarrow's worth of branches off of one last weekend. It is just beginning to leaf out. Mine do not bloom for several more months. This is more a summer blooming shrub than a spring blooming one.