The buddleias, or butterfly-bushes, popular plants in the North, came from Asia.
Although generally classed as rather coarse shrubs, they are now widely planted because of their pleasing color range. One factor that has made them undesirable until recently is restricted spaces with their rampant growth.
I have found only one kind dependably hard, as far as top wood is concerned: Buddleia alternifolia, fountain butterfly bush.
It is a large-scale shrub with small leaves and fragrant, delicate lilac flowers early in the season.
Breeders are now producing new sorts of more restricted growth habits. However, many of the older sorts still have great value where filling large areas in a short time is desirable.
Even if the plants are removed later, little loss is felt since they are inexpensive and produce quick results.
Recent Varieties
Fascinating, one of the newer kinds, makes a neat, well-proportioned bush, 5’ to 6’ feet in height, with huge clusters, as much as 18” inches in length, of a soft, cattleya orchid or pink.
Purple Prince
Another outstanding innovation is found in Purple Prince, a healthy-growing plant to 5’ feet that bears imperial-purple flowers with golden eyes that are fully twice as wide at the base as other kinds. This plant gives a very striking effect, and the spikes are delightful in bouquets.
Fortune
Fortune, growing to about 5’ feet, is of ideal shape and bears its lilac spikes, with orange eyes, in riotous profusion. Also, instead of being flat, as in most spots, the spikes are round and in bloom at one time.
White Profusion
The most dwarf so far tested, and I have tried most kinds, is White Profusion. It grows only 3’ feet in height and about as wide, with a lavish display of short-stemmed sprays identical to the white variety Peace.
In my opinion, this is the gem of the lot. Every suggestion of coarseness is absent, so objectionable to many of the older kinds.
The deep-green, healthy foliage makes a perfect foil for its flowers borne constantly until frost if the old spikes are kept cut off. Moreover, it is almost certain that in the near future, we shall have other colors in this dwarf type.
Buddleias
Buddleias seem to succeed in almost any soil. With a mound of soil placed around the base of the plants, or a mulch of leaves, they will winter successfully over a wide area.
After sharp frosts have ended growth, the tops can be cut back to a foot or more; in areas of dependably heavy snowfall, the tops may be left to catch the snow.
Butterfly bushes grow easily from seeds that they bear in abundance. But most of it should be removed to have a continuous bloom.
A few seed sprays will furnish all the seedlings you will need. Moreover, if started early inside, many bloom the first year.
44659 by Chester D. Wedrick