Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip' Butterfly Bush | ButterflyBushes.com (2024)

FAQs

How big does low and behold butterfly bush get? ›

'Blue Chip' stays under three feet tall without any pruning, and blooms continuously from mid summer to frost without deadheading. It is frost tolerant, non-invasive and very easy to grow. Cold, wet winters can be really hard on buddleia, so here are a few tips to help your buddleia thrive in your garden: 1.

In clay soil, plant butterfly bush so they are slightly above the soil. Light: Sun (> 6 hours sun). Water: Low to average watering; soil can even be dry once established.

So while the butterfly bush may appear to attract many butterflies to your yard, it can inadvertently damage the local ecosystem by spreading into natural areas and crowding out the native plants crucial to butterfly life cycles.

Light: Butterfly bushes grow and flower best in full sun. They will grow fine in part shade, especially in warmer climates, but their flowering may be reduced. Soil: Butterfly Bushes are not particular about the soil conditions, as long as it drains well. Poorly-drained soils can cause root rot.

Typically, a butterfly bush will live about 10 years. You may find some plants that live longer than that, but it's a rare case. Proper care of a butterfly bush will help it live longer and thrive in your garden.

Left unpruned, large butterfly bushes can become “second story” plants: their flowers form way up at the top so you can't enjoy them unless you have a second story window. The warmer your climate, the more you should cut back your butterfly bush each spring.

You need to deadhead it: Deadheading works very well when it comes to enticing new blooms on the butterfly bush. Once the blooms start to look dry and slightly withered, it starts to look a bit sad, and you can give the shrub a chance to push out another round of blooms with some thorough deadheading.

Butterfly bushes do not need to be pruned every year. In fact, you only need to prune them when they get too large for the space allotted. But since butterfly bushes only bloom on new growth many gardeners prune them severely each spring to encourage lots of new growth and lots of flowers.

The Asian tiger mosquito is attracted to flowering butterfly bushes, giving mosquito control officials another tool to monitor and trap the insect that can transmit pathogens, causing potentially deadly diseases, a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences study shows.

As you can imagine, the butterfly bush is famous for attracting butterflies, though hummingbirds enjoy its large, fragrant flowers as well.

Why not plant butterfly bushes? ›

butterfly bush contributes to the collapse of food webs

“If you plant butterfly bush, and not native [species], then right away you're removing at least 75% of the food that is supporting the biodiversity that's out there.” And these critters need all the help they can get.

The coffee grinds provide nitrogen & tannic acids to the soil. Acid loving plants such as azaleas, blueberries, butterfly weed, camellias, ferns, gardenias, lupines & rhododendrons especially love coffee grinds.

Butterfly bushes do best when planted in early spring or summer, but when the temperatures are hotter keep them well-watered. An island bed planted with a butterfly bush (or several) will help attract these lovely pollinators.

Is Butterfly Bush Toxic for Dogs? While they are not edible, they are also not poisonous to dogs, cats, or humans. Eating a large quantity (we mean a lot) of leaves, stems, or flowers can cause an upset stomach. It is certainly safe for your dogs!

It is a very fast-growing plant that usually reaches maturity within a single growing season, but some wariness is warranted, as this plant self-seeds so readily that it is considered a noxious weed in some regions.

For non-dwarf butterfly bushes, cut back to 12 to 24 inches and remove any dead or broken branches. (Or cut back nearly to the ground. Butterfly bushes will still resprout and bloom!) For dwarf types such as 'Blue Chip' and 'Buzz', cut back by at least half the height in early spring.

Butterfly bushes are full sun plants. That means they should get at least six hours of bright sun each day. It doesn't need to come all at once – it can be in chunks throughout the day. In very hot climates, a bit of afternoon shade is permissible.