Butterfly bushes should only be "drastically" pruned to within about 12" from the base, in early spring. You can judiciously prune errant branches, etc., throughout the growing season. Cuttings are easy to grow. Choose reasonably new (not the woody ones) stems about 6" or larger, removing the foliage except for the tip leaves. Rooting hormone helps, but is not necessary. Put the cutting in potting soil, sand, whatever, they are not picky. Enclose the cutting in a plastic bag. I test the cutting by tugging on the top of the stems, and if the stem seems resistant, it has roots. Harden them off from the baggy by opening the top for a few days, and then removing it entirely. So easy to do! Heavy fall or winter pruning is not advised - mine died one year after pruning it heavily in late fall. Now I leave all the dead stems over winter and prune it in early spring. Someone said that they successfully pruned theirs in late fall, but I wouldn't risk it. As Bob says, there are many new dwarf hybrids out there now. Another pretty one is Silver Anniversary. MissSherry has a beautiful Ellen's Blue that I covet...lol. I planted a Nanho purple one time, though, which is a dwarf, and it did not attract any butterflies at all in my garden. Others have said it has for them. The old standbys like Pink Delight, White Profusion, and the yellow flowering buddleias are good nectar sources for sure. Susan

Pics of my cut down perennials in February Hi Robin, The “correct” answer is—it really doesn’t matter with most perennials! There really (really!) isn’t a right or a wrong time for most! Zach prefers to leave the old foliage on his until spring, but I cut mine down as soon as I have time after everything’s frozen. I “live” in my family room, which is on the lower level—just above grade—of a tri-level and has two BIG windows that look out to virtually all of my perennials. It’s wonderful to be able to see, constantly, what’s “blooming now” in summer, but in winter it looks like a Brown Jungle if I leave the olde foliage on them! One year I didn’t get anything cut down till early spring and it was just a nasty brown jumble all winter. Ever since then I’ve been sure to get, especially the tall, obvious stuff cut down early. And I REALLY need Garden Time in winter, and here in Denver we always have beautiful warm days when I can get out and be “doing” in the yard! In the last week I’ve been out in shorts a couple times! Ahh, Colorado! Since the recent “switchover,” I’m not posting pics anymore [unless they get around to letting up post thru our hosting sites], but I found an old thread that shows my main perennial bed by my back fence, and the strip of perennials right along the back of my house, in February. Those pics were taken in ’08, but it looks the same right now! In the ’08 pics the two things that hadn’t been cut down yet were the Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’, and the blue fescue, both ornamental grasses that I leave, as long as they don’t get too smashed down, for winter interest! They’re both still out there this year too! Check out the thread I’ve linked and my 4 pics are about halfway down! The pics aren’t clickable anymore, so you can’t make them bigger anymore to see more clearly! And the bottom of that post is cut off because of the new, current, length limitations! But at least the 4 pics showing everything cut down made it! There are a few things, especially new things if they might be marginally hardy in my zone, or if they were planted really late but were still actively growing when planted, that I leave the dead foliage on for a little bit of “protection.” Dead foliage can really help “collect” snow around plants, and snow is an excellent insulator, so if something is questionable, I sometimes leave all or part of the dead foliage until spring for that purpose. If they make it fine that year, the second year they get cut all the way down. Some people mulch “marginal” plants with a wood mulch (or something else), but I don’t like to cover up the crown that completely, so I rarely do that. If you decide to wait till spring to cut them down, don’t wait TOO long! For things you cut down in spring I recommend watching very closely for when the new growth starts and cut them down as soon as they start growing. The bigger the new growth gets, the more likely you are to damage it when you’re trying to cut out the old stuff. That’s if you cut them “all the way” down! If you leave some of the old stems/foliage on just be sure you cut them before the new growth gets up to the height you plan to cut at. I’m some kind of a Whacky Neatnik, I cut mine down ALL the way, so anything that didn’t get cut earlier gets cut just as soon as it starts to grow. I just like the way they look better if all the old brown foliage and stems are gone—and, again, I’m looking straight out at them all winter! And I also cut them all the way down because when they start growing again the following year I want to be looking at only new green stems, I don’t want a bunch of last year’s brown stems interfering with my “perfect garden” (who am I kidding!) image! So try some different things, and see what seems to be working best for you. What town are you closest too? I don’t recognize Greenhorn Mountain. And did you used to post on RMG under a different name before the Big Switch, or are you new here? If you’re new, WELCOME! Skybird

Geographically, my plant is in coastal Los Angeles, less than three miles from the ocean. Climate here varies greatly as you get further from the beach, and I am close enough to get the coastal influence that keeps the summers from getting too hot and also keeps the winters from ever having frost. It's not tropical - it's very similar to the climate in South Africa. I'm not that familiar with the climate in London - but from what I've heard, it is also very mild. However, I do know that I get a lot more sun in the winter than London does, even though winter is our rainy season. It does not get below 40°F where I live, mean temperature in January is 58°F. I would think that anyone growing a dragon fruit plant would want to get fruit from it, as it is quite delicious. That's the only reason I am growing it. You can only see the flowers at night and early the next morning, and so that's not much of a reason. And yes, my plant stays outdoors all year - it is extremely difficult to move once it gets to a certain size, and as I said before, the arms get brittle and break easily when they are very long.

So As of this past Saturday, April 18th, I removed the collars off of the 12 rosebushes. The bushes had many skinny tall stems greening up, but with weird looking tiny purple/wine colored leaves (no, not rosette). I just ended up doing probably more pruning than I should have. (blame it on the being cooped up for what seems like forever....). I looked at how far back I pruned, thinking....'Why did I prune that low???' Too late now. There are green stems on all of them, but one or two of the bushes have more dead than green. I forget from year to year how far down I prune, but I think I pruned lower than in the past. I know in Milwaukee, WI, back in November we had a horrible cold/freeze. I wonder (since that would always be way too early to winterize) if that brief freeze did a 'number' on my bushes. I'm hoping that by June, they will have gotten taller & leafier with buds. Arghhhhhh The rosebush that looks the worst is the Happy Go Lucky yellow one (my only yellow) that I was told was a very vibrant bush. It did beautifully when I first planted it about 2 years ago. this past Summer I noticed a number of roses, but not as big as the first year. I wanted a healthy yellow that was resistant to black spot which seems to happen a lot in our area.