Growing Better Butterfly Bushes: Varieties We Love & How We Maintain Them

Comments · 87

• RI

  @richarddrum9970 · 1 year ago

  Landscape architect here, I have planted many of these in butterfly gardens and in my backyard. Haven’t had any problems with them spreading around.  Pugsters are great in blue and pink mixed with coneflowers and lantanas the monarchs go crazy along with hummingbirds and hummingbird moths. Great plants.

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• DU

  @DungMountainGarden · 1 year ago

  This video feels like a soft breeze after a long day – so calming. I’ve been capturing quiet moments like this too, just light, stillness, and a slower rhythm.😊😊😊❤

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• TG

  @tg_ny · 1 year ago

  Thanks for a video on this series of butterfly bushes. &nbsp;The color on lil Rasberry is stunning.<br><br>The way I deadhead my butterfly bush is to follow the stem of a spent flower cluster down to where there is two opposing buds for new flower clusters present, and clip the stem just above those. &nbsp;I do this once per week during the plant’s flowering season, and it just causes the plant to keep doubling it’s flower clusters.<br><br>I am in zone 5b in New York, so I just let my plant go dormant after the first hard frost, then during garden cleanup in the early spring, I cut off the all of the branches of the plant which have all died off back down to the crown of the plant. &nbsp; It is a low maintenance plant which is pretty easy to take care of.<br><br>I don’t mulch my butterfly bush like I do with my other plants. &nbsp;It likes the ground to dry out in full sun. &nbsp;I give the plant 10-10-10 fertilizer in early spring when the leaves appear. &nbsp; This year for the first time I have given the plant a shot of the Proven Winners water soluble fertilizer as the flower clusters buds are forming to see if that has any effect. &nbsp;I use that fertilizer on my annuals and my tender salvias. &nbsp;I find, because of the heavy flowering on the salvias like amistad, that those plants really benefit from iron, which the Proven Winners fertilizer contains. &nbsp; I am going to see if it has the same effect on my butterfly bush. &nbsp;It not only help boost flower production, but it enriches the beauty of the plant’s foliage as well.<br><br>Planting butterfly bushes in the vegetable garden is a great idea. &nbsp;Thanks for that tip! &nbsp;<br><br>I am up in New York state, but really enjoy the content of your channel, especially the visits to the botanical gardens. &nbsp;Once I get a bit more free time, I am going to go visit those botanical gardens around the country myself.

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• MA

  @marybeth4002 · 1 year ago

  Great video, Jim and Stephany. &nbsp;All of the colors of the Butterfly Bushes are beautiful, however, that raspberry color would be a magnificent pop of color in the garden.

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• HO

  @HoosierDaddy_ · 1 year ago

  Mine also were stunted this year with the crazy spring weather. Also, I&apos;ve been all over my state of Indiana and have never, ever seen a butterfly bush in the wild. They&apos;re listed as invasive, but nobody here seems to even have any. I have 4 or 5 and they are just beautiful. I also have many butterfly host plants and am about 70% native, so the caterpillars have &nbsp;many homes at my house, lol.

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• JE

  @jenn-m3w · 1 year ago

  Love butterfly bushes. I’m in 7B and have been growing them for 15 years. I’ve never had them self propagate or become invasive. They’re such wonderful shrubs. I have over ten butterfly bush varieties in my garden and keep adding. Just added Butterfly Candy Lil Raspberry, Grape and Coconut after seeing Jim &amp; Steph’s. The pollinators LOVE them and so do I!

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• HA

  @HandcraftedintheFoothills · 1 year ago

  Love our candy Lil Raspberry..she&apos;s a beauty

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• JE

  @jeanniecollier6763 · 1 year ago

  Oh wow!! I learned a lot more about my Butterfly bushes from this video. Thank you both.

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• KI

  @kimberlyheibel8759 · 1 year ago

  I have four total in my yard. One punkster purple and one punkster pink. The other two are purple as well.

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• JA

  @Jack-TruthSoSo · 5 months ago

  Thanks Jim. I just ordered the Raspberry. 6A Indiana. Hope it gets as big as yours.

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• CO

  @corneliusb1977 · 1 year ago

  I ordered the Raspberry Candy butterfly bush last year after you highlighted them at the growers. I had no idea they got that big!! I will probably have to move mine and replace with smaller variety. Thanks for telling us when is best time to transplant. I agree, the color is amazing in the garden and I’ve completely enjoyed having it to brighten up the yard!

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• RO

  @robertmccluskey3294 · 3 weeks ago

  I like those bushes have you seen the hummingbird moth before I just saw one a week ago