Is Buddleia weyeriana better?

[Jason Claxton]

In my garden I have Buddleia weyeriana and the normal davidii. I've noticed that the weyeriana both flowers earlier and finishes later than davidii ,is this other peoples experience also?,are some butterfly bushes better than others for butterflies does anybody know?

[aeshna5]

I used to have a B. x weyeriana ( a hybrid between B. davidii + B. globosa) in my garden which I'd grown as a cutting. It was good for bees + hoverflies, but not too attractive to butterflies.

An RHS survey recommended the cultivar " Dartmoor" as one of the best for butterflies. I believe this is the cultivar by the loos at Minsmere + is always full of insects.

[Jason Claxton]

Thanks Aeshna,so it looks like I'll do some tweaking with the Buddleias next year.It was the different flowering times that made me start asking questions,clearly though there are other factors involved as well.Brilliant stuff .Cheers Jason

[Susie]

I have a few weyerianas; moonlight, goldenglow and honeycombe I think they are. They are still small but I have found that they start flowering later than the davidiis but then carry on for a very long time. They are still flowering now and last year I remember the moonlight flowers having snow on.

They do seem to mainly attract bees but the occasional butterfly too. Commas seem particularly keen. I hope to learn more as the plants grow.

[Jason Claxton]

Hi Susie,yes my weyerianas are still flowering strongly now too. I suppose it makes sense to have a mixture of weyeriana and davidii,based on its flowering time alone,and there also seems to be a picture of other insects such as bees and hoverflies maybe going on the weyeriana,whilst the butterflies prefer the davidii . I dont think that I can go wrong by keeping them both ,it would seem though.

[Susie]

If you have room in your garden it certainly seems to make sense to have a selection. I have heard that buddleia globosa is good for insects and this is the earliest flowering buddleia that I know of. Again mine is too small for me to really have anything personal of note to report but I hope to in time. I have a buddleia alternafolia which is very pretty with long trailing pannicles of flowers long before the davidiis are in usually in bloom too.

If you prune your buddleias correctly I can see no reason why you shouldn't be able to have them in bloom from late spring until Christmas.

[Jason Claxton]

Thanks Susie,sadly my Buddleias probably get lopped as opposed to pruned,so definitely some room for improvement there.The good thing about Buddleias are that they are fast growing,so it wont be long before you get a nice big plant.I think also I shall plant the davidii Dartmoor that Aeshna has mentioned,it sounds like a butterfly magnet. I'll just get the winter thing out the way first though I suppose.Cheers Jason