Re: Buddleia

In a message dated 6/19/03 11:02:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Kitty <
kmrsy@earthlink.net> writes:

> . . . My first one that limped along and died in its 4th yr - well, I 
> called
> the supplier, Bluestone, to ask what I might have been doing wrong, and
> they actually replaced it. I told him no, it wasn't the fault of their
> product, that I just wanted info, but he insisted. The replacement
> didn't do well either.
> 
> 
> There are enough things that do quite well that also attract butterflies 
> that I don't need to stew over these.
> 
> Kitty
> 
> I've been meaning to write to the list about Buddleias also. I have about 
half a dozen named varieties, including Black Knight, Royal Red, Harlequin, Nanho 
Blue, and a yellow whose name escapes me. They have all been growing for 
about 3 or 4 years. They were doing fabulously well, some growing up to 8 feet 
tall, until this year, which I attributed to the bitter winter we had. But I'm 
beginning wonder now, since I've heard from some other friends that many of them 
are just not long-lived. I cut them back in early Spring, and many of them 
now have arm sized root stocks. But, this year, all of them have only the 
tiniest bits of growth on them to indicate that they are even still alive at all. 
And the funny thing is, the volunteers which sprout up all over the garden are 
doing much better than their parents, with bushy growth already 2 to 3 feet 
high. I'm guessing that these seedlings will not be the fancy varieties, so the 
question is, are the seedlings doing so much better because they are new 
plants, or because they are the sturdy, tough original variety rather than the fancy 
hybrids? I'm thinking of just digging up the old ones and replacing them. I 
suppose it's not so terrible to get 3 or 4 good years from a butterfly bush and 
then have to replace it, although it would be nice if I never had to!

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley  zone 5/6

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