topic Butterfly Bushes in Garden

Butterfly Bushes

Puzzle Piece — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 01:32:56 GMT

My Butterfly bushes have give me a very nice show of flowers and butterflies. They are also drought resistant. I get the compliments from the nice neighbors and those who walk by the house. The envious people just walk past and ignore the beauty.

I am pleased with this Q purchase.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

spumoni99 — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 01:53:02 GMT

I had one years ago in my backyard, it took over the whole part of the yard I ended up having to dig it up, it was pretty before it took over though.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

ahoymate — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 02:26:55 GMT

Butterfly bushes have a beautiful scent and come in shades of purple as well as pink, red-violet,white. A nice bush to have.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

moonandthestars — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 03:00:14 GMT

butterfly bushes are great - I'm a big fan. There are different varieties too - some are very invasive some are not particularly so. There are compact ones, really large ones, and various colors. I think they're a great look and easy maintenance. They do have a beautiful scent.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

Desertdi — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 04:52:44 GMT

Re: Butterfly Bushes

Lilysmom1 — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 10:47:35 GMT

@Puzzle Piece , I am in zone 5 (East Coast, Canada). I had a couple about ten years ago. They are borderline in our zone and mine didn't survive the winter so lesson learned. You had to have a micro climate for them to work here. With climate change, that may not be the case any more.

My neighbour had one and it was,covered in masses of butterflies. Lately, very few monarchs or any butterflies for that matter.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

HLP — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 13:46:48 GMT

@Puzzle Piece wrote:
My Butterfly bushes have give me a very nice show of flowers and butterflies. They are also drought resistant. I get the compliments from the nice neighbors and those who walk by the house. The envious people just walk past and ignore the beauty.
I am pleased with this Q purchase.

I have them, for years. They are best when you clip off dead flowers, also in early Spring we cut them off about 6 inches off ground. Hummingbirds akso like them. In the wild here they bloom with orange flowers.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

CJC — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 11:39:09 GMT

I have two Miss Violet butterfly bushes here in OH planted last spring. They are only 2 feet tall, but they'll be taller next year. Lots of butterfly visitors all summer. We lived in Deep South for 20 years before moving back north, and butterfly bushes do not do well at all in Florida's intense heat so I'm happy to see them flourishing here. Enjoy yours! I miss my year around gardening hobby.....don't handle winter weather very well.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

gardenman — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 12:06:57 GMT

@CJC wrote:
I have two Miss Violet butterfly bushes here in OH planted last spring. They are only 2 feet tall, but they'll be taller next year. Lots of butterfly visitors all summer. We lived in Deep South for 20 years before moving back north, and butterfly bushes do not do well at all in Florida's intense heat so I'm happy to see them flourishing here. Enjoy yours! I miss my year around gardening hobby.....don't handle winter weather very well.

And that's why I grow stuff under my plant lights. I've got sixty-plus African Violet seedlings under my lights now. By January/February they should start flowering. Sitting by the plant lights in the gloom of winter helps brighten my spirits. They make winter more tolerable. I could never live north of the Arctic Circle where it stays dark for almost six months. I would go insane.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

ValuSkr — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 12:16:32 GMT

They are nice plants but have to be pruned so they don't become a gangly mess. My neighbor in a townhome community had one in the latter category. It took over his whole back yard. He didn't care; he rarely stepped foot back there.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

CJC — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 19:13:59 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
@CJC wrote:
I have two Miss Violet butterfly bushes here in OH planted last spring. They are only 2 feet tall, but they'll be taller next year. Lots of butterfly visitors all summer. We lived in Deep South for 20 years before moving back north, and butterfly bushes do not do well at all in Florida's intense heat so I'm happy to see them flourishing here. Enjoy yours! I miss my year around gardening hobby.....don't handle winter weather very well.
And that's why I grow stuff under my plant lights. I've got sixty-plus African Violet seedlings under my lights now. By January/February they should start flowering. Sitting by the plant lights in the gloom of winter helps brighten my spirits. They make winter more tolerable. I could never live north of the Arctic Circle where it stays dark for almost six months. I would go insane.

Good idea! I'll come sit at your house among the violets. Don't worry, I'll leave around May 1st.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

Icegoddess — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 19:28:45 GMT

I had 2 dwarfs up until this last winter. They were never gangly or invasive. I'm in zone 7b, so should be good, but the warm weather late in the year followed by an Arctic blash killed a lot of stuff that should be hardy all over town. I thought I had lost both of them, but one came back from the roots. I did lose my Confederate Jasmine though. My yellow jasmine was heavily damaged, yet a begonia I planted several years ago as an annual still returned.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

Icegoddess — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 03:40:49 GMT

@gardenman have you ever considered and Aerogarden? I like mine for seed starting in spring. I've also successfully rooted shrimp plant cuttings in it. I thought they were surely a goner after they laid down flat after I put them in, but by the next morning they were back upright. Many like to grow the mini tomatoes in them. I'm not a tomato person, but I have grown filet green beans in mine too. I wasn't happy with the lettuce though.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

gardenman — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 10:07:23 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
@gardenman have you ever considered and Aerogarden? I like mine for seed starting in spring. I've also successfully rooted shrimp plant cuttings in it. I thought they were surely a goner after they laid down flat after I put them in, but by the next morning they were back upright. Many like to grow the mini tomatoes in them. I'm not a tomato person, but I have grown filet green beans in mine too. I wasn't happy with the lettuce though.

I've looked at them, but I have a 48" X 18"X 72" six shelf stainless steel shelving unit with plant lights that I use instead. Only three of the six shelves have lights on them now, but I can add more as needed. It gives me great space for indoor gardening.

Re: Butterfly Bushes

bells4me — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 01:58:41 GMT

Mine have never grown.