Buddleia davidii

[James M]

Thanks everyone

[Colin Pumfrett]

I have 13 buddleias in my garden, they are Fortune (lilac), 3 lochinch (bluish purple) 4 sungold (yellow) 3 royal red (deep red/mauve) white profusion and globusa (orange ball tree)This year there has not been much butterfly activity in the garden due to the awful weather but last year i had 22 species. The favourite bush for butterflies was the lilac followed by lochinch, all bushes were popular but the lilac was covered with butterflies, also saw 23 hummingbird hawk moths but none this year.
Colin Pumfrett.

[James M]

Originally Posted by Colin Pumfrett

I have 13 buddleias in my garden, they are Fortune (lilac), 3 lochinch (bluish purple) 4 sungold (yellow) 3 royal red (deep red/mauve) white profusion and globusa (orange ball tree)This year there has not been much butterfly activity in the garden due to the awful weather but last year i had 22 species. The favourite bush for butterflies was the lilac followed by lochinch, all bushes were popular but the lilac was covered with butterflies, also saw 23 hummingbird hawk moths but none this year.
Colin Pumfrett.

Thanks Colin, wow thats alot of buddleias, have you got any pics of them? as I have never seen half of those varieties, oh also what are the 22 species? I have only recorded 11 in our garden.

[Colin Pumfrett]

Hi James.
I made a mistake it was not 22 but 24
Green veined, large and small whites, they love lavender
large and small skipper, common and holly blue, brown argus, small copper, brimstone,
orange tip, gatekeeper,meadow brown, ringlet, speckled wood, wall brown
the buddleia specialists small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and comma
1 small heath and the two surprises clouded yellow and a grayling.
living next to the countryside and woods helps a lot.i also have lots of lavender in the garden which attracts many species.I saw 23 hummingbird hawk moths also last year but none this year. Eight species of dragonfly and damselfly too. I have no photos of my buddleias ,an easy way to see some varieties is to look on ebay.

[Oscar2006]

with a Garden list like that we may have to have a WAB meeting at your place sometime

[James M]

Originally Posted by Colin Pumfrett

Hi James.
I made a mistake it was not 22 but 24
Green veined, large and small whites, they love lavender
large and small skipper, common and holly blue, brown argus, small copper, brimstone,
orange tip, gatekeeper,meadow brown, ringlet, speckled wood, wall brown
the buddleia specialists small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and comma
1 small heath and the two surprises clouded yellow and a grayling.
living next to the countryside and woods helps a lot.i also have lots of lavender in the garden which attracts many species.I saw 23 hummingbird hawk moths also last year but none this year. Eight species of dragonfly and damselfly too. I have no photos of my buddleias ,an easy way to see some varieties is to look on ebay.

Thanks Colin.

[James M]

Originally Posted by ChrisJB

I prune mine in autumn to lower them and avoid wind rock and uprooting. I then prune again, either the first or second week in April, to coincide flowering with maximum butterfly emergence.

In Saddleworth, you are just up the road from me James, so they would probably flower about the same time.

Regarding colour of davidii, an experiment was done at the RHS place at Harlow Carr, last year I think and they all turned out to be pretty much equally attractive.

Regards, Chris

Hi Chris whereabouts are you? Oh And I wanted to as you a question, do you know if there are supposed to be adders at Moorgate Quarry? it's just I heard that there was from somewhere but I can't remember where.

[Tom Burke]

I have a couple of buddleia in our garden here in Sheffield. It's a new garden - almost two years ago we had the whole garden (100' of garden...) completely rebuilt. We're not gardeners, you see, and for over 20 years we'd been struggling with it. Now we have a low maintenance garden with planting areas around the edges. We had a planting plan from the designer and completed it last winter when we put the two buddleia in: one's a Black Knight, the other is a White Profusion, and to be honest we're very pleased at how well both have done.

My question may seem a simple one, but I am in fact puzzled. It's to do with 'deadheading'. What do people actually do? - just cut the old flower off at its stem? And what about a situation where there are several flowers on the same branch that are now dead? Is it best to just cut each flower separately and leave its stem, or cut the main stem at a point just below where the flowers have separated onto their own short stems?

I'd be grateful for any advice people can give me.

[nightshade]

I just take off each individual head, cut them back hard in the spring. The garden sounds very nice any photos?

[N_I_B_S]

Originally Posted by Colin Pumfrett

Hi James.
I made a mistake it was not 22 but 24
Green veined, large and small whites, they love lavender
large and small skipper, common and holly blue, brown argus, small copper, brimstone,
orange tip, gatekeeper,meadow brown, ringlet, speckled wood, wall brown
the buddleia specialists small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and comma
1 small heath and the two surprises clouded yellow and a grayling.
living next to the countryside and woods helps a lot.i also have lots of lavender in the garden which attracts many species.I saw 23 hummingbird hawk moths also last year but none this year. Eight species of dragonfly and damselfly too. I have no photos of my buddleias ,an easy way to see some varieties is to look on ebay.

Please take a picture so we can see all your wonderful buddleia in bloom )))