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Buddleia
Johnsonsyard
Posts: 22
in Plants
When do you prune buddleias ? Mine is getting a bit unkempt and woody. Thanks.
0
Posts
cut it down to knee height in March. You've left if too late this year - you'll lose the flowers if you do if now.
In autumn reduce each stem by about half to prevent wind rock over winter, then cut hard back and feed in March.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
THanks . This one needs to be taken in hand .
What colour are the flowers Johnsonsyard?
They are a light purple .
Did you buy it or did it self-seed? Sorry I could have asked that at the same time as asking what colour. The reason I'm asking is because my neighbour set a hedge between us of pale lilac buddleia which are the ones that cost the railways money.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28196221
It set seed like crazy in both our gravel driveways and was a total PITA!. We dug it up. In my last garden I had a Royal Red and that was fabulous and didn't self seed that I noticed. I now have a white one, an orange ball one, a mini buzz lilac one and three Black Knights but none have flowered yet, being young. I can tell you that they are very easy to propagate from cuttings and grow extremely quickly.
As far as pruning goes, your original question, I have nothing more than Dove to say other than prune to a healthy pair of buds and those two will become flowering stems this year. Keep at it to make it bushier and keep it shorter.
Hope that's helpful.
Can be. If it's lilac coloured, cut the flowers off before they die and go brown or you'll be weeding it before the end of the summer!
Or dig it up! Your choice, it's a lotta work when it's that prolific, lilac thug. I reserve judgement on the ones that are other colours. Will find out I guess, I'm expecting them to flower this year.
Cloggie's right - it could be one of the bog standard ones which will grow anywhere, but as long as you deadhead them, you can keep it where you want it.
The named davidii varieties, however, are delightful and very easy to grow. They tend to be better behaved, although deadheading is a good habit to get into for keeping them flowering, but are easy to propagate by taking cuttings. I've done several, for friends and family as well as few forum members, of B. Knight. It's particularly nice. The globosa ones are slightly different, but fairly straightforward too.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I was given the white and globosa as cuttings by a friend Fairy and they're looking juvenile but happy, chuffed
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The Black Knight I bought late in the year and when I cut it back in spring, I grew cuttings from it and ended up with enough to have 3 plants plus 2 to give away to a neighbour. Being young I've not seen flowers from any of them yet but I hope to see some this year.
Can someone advise the best way to take cuttings? would love to have more Thanks
It's dead easy with Buddliea Luke.
Say I cut it down to a pair of buds like you do when you prune it, then you have a stick in your hand that has say, 4 - 7 sets of opposing leaves on it depending on how tall it was.
Because when you cut it, you cut to leave behind two leaves, you have a bare bit on the end of the stick in your hand. Cut this off to the next pair of leaves. Now pull those two leaves off. The reason for this is you want a node at the end of the cutting. This is where the roots will come from.
Now cut just above the next set of leaves. This is your first cutting and the leaves will nourish the roots.
Put it right next to the edge of a pot with compost in it and water it, then put it in a cold frame or somewhere out of direct sunlight. Keep watering until you see roots from the bottom of the pot.
Ask again if anything I've said isn't clear.