Prune Your Butterfly Bush to Get a Head Start on Summer

With the possible exception of crabgrass, that butterfly bush by your fence might be the hardiest plant in your yard. 

The bushes most commonly seen in Barrington are Buddleia davidii.  In warmer states, these bushes are evergreen, and in cool states they are deciduous plants that lose their leaves in winter. Here in Zone 6, they're usually herbivorous--they die right back to the ground.

You can prune your buddleia any time without doing harm to the plant, but the best time is late winter or early spring, before the new growth starts.  You can prune new growth, but the bush won't flower as heavily.

As with most gardening topics, you'll hear varying advice:  cut the buddleia down to about 12-18 inches, remove the oldest and thickest wood and cut back the rest to a few inches, cut the whole bush right down to the ground.  Whatever approach you take, the buddleia will grow between 5 and 10 feet by midsummer.

The exception to early-spring pruning is the Buddleia alternifolia, a much less common variety that has long, thin flower racemes (about 18 inches) with a weeping habit.  These bushes should be pruned after the flowers have blossomed.

Pruning is never my favorite task, but I'm looking forward to tending the buddleia this weekend.  After the long, snowy winter we've had, any excuse to get back into the garden is a good one.