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Re: [SHADEGARDENS] Winter-Interest Plants -Reply -Reply

Tamara:  I don't know what zone you are in,
but here in Oregon 6b/7a, we get below freezing
at night regularly, and snow and ice several
times, lasting only a few days to a week.  Some
of my buddleas develop thick (1-2") woody
trunks, even by cutting them back to 1-2' every
year.  I have to use a hand saw toward the
bottom on White Bouquet, Sungold, Royal
Robe, Pink Delight and even the "dwarf" Nanho
Blue.  I have not experienced this yet with
Black Knight, although he is 3 years old.
Perhaps he just more shrubby, time will tell.

As to the actually training/pruning, if it suits
my purpose for a particular bed, when the plant
is young (most need to be 1-2 years old, but
White Bouquet got this treatment the first
year, it was so vigorous), I leave 3-4 major
stems that seem attractive to my eye, twisting,
whatever, and remove all other bottom stems.
You will have to remove bottom growth every
year, maybe letting some new ones grow, while
pruning out old ones.  I would imagine if you
live in a harsh climate, you would not have a
choice about this because the weather would
force you to rethink the shape.   In subsequent
years I just remove some of the twiggy growth
from these main "trunks", or cut it back smaller
than I want it to grow that year.  As time goes
by you'll learn how vigorous each variety is or
gets because of its location, or how much
screening you want, and will adjust your
pruning accordingly.

I hope this helps and will work for you in your
climate.  I saw this done at a bed and breakfast
years ago and the light went on for me that I
didn't have to give up all that ground space to
have so many buddleas.  I have also grown
annual vines up them once they get this
"treeish" stature, with great success.  Last year I
grew "Early Call" morning glory (mixed colors of
purple, pink and white) through White Bouquet
and it was wonderful!

>>> Tamara Milostan
<tmilosta@SCNC.BAS.K12.MI.US> 03/02/98
05:31pm >>>
Susan - can you explain limbing up your
Buddleia - I twisted together
the stems on mine last year to try and acheive
a more tree like
structure but it didn't look that good. Also my
Purple Knight seemed to
stay green through this winter, but I cut it back
this weekend because I
read that was what I was supposed to do - was
this a mistake since it
had not really died down?
 last summer was my first experience with this
plant and I was not very
impressed, but maybe that was because it was
and immature plant. I also
read that they should not be fertilized as that
would promote leaf
growth and not flowers - what has been your
experience? Tamara
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