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Arizona Gardening

Burning Bush and Butterfly Bush...Do they grow in AZ?

aznursingstudent

15 years ago

Hello everbody!

My name is Dustin and i am new to this site and i came here searching for an answer, and i am pretty confident that other fellow native Arizonan's like myself, or other garden lovers, will have some valuable input on what to do or where to get things. I am an arizona native of alomst 20 years(lived here my whole life), and i love the desert here. Summers are hot, but its well worth the awsome winter/ fall weather we get.

So, I recently returned from a trip to Philadelphia, and upon arriving at my grandparents house, they have many beautiful Dwarf Burning Bushes and Butterfly Bushes, and iw ould just love to get my hands on one of them. The problem is that i don't know for sure if they will grow here or not and where to even find them... Does anyone know about these bushes and where to find them? If so, I would greatly appreciate any input!

Thanks!

aznursingstudent.

Featured Answer

aznursingstudent
Original Author

15 years ago

So i have researched the chinese pistache tree and it is incredibly beautiful with its fall/ winter colors...So now my next question is where do you buy one?!?!?! I have been all over town to different nurseries and they all tell me that they either don't know about the tree, where to find it, or even what it is. I looked at moon valley nursery, and even though they are a little pricey, they dont have it and they said that the best they could offer is the Sweetgum tree...So (1) Does ANYONE who has a Chinese Pistache know where to buy one and (2)Does anyone know about the sweetgum tree?

Thanks for all of your help!

-AZnursingstudent.

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Comments (8)

kmvanatten
15 years ago
There is a butterfly bush genus (Buddleia) that grows here, Bulleia marrubifolia -- Woolly Butterfly Bush -- It looks more like a Lantana in flower than the sweeping conical flower clusters seen in the species back east. It also comes in only one color of flower -- Orange/Red/Brown.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buddleai marrubifolia
kmvanatten
15 years ago
According to sources in the Nursery industry, Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight' -- Summer Lilac, which has the flower-type of the plants back east, will grow, but will die back severely in the winter.
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Very fast, but unrefined and not very dense. Little foliage in winter, either. We have some huge ones around here, where it has pretty much become a pest species. Maybe you need something like scarlet runner beans on a trellis, of some of those ready-to-go lath sections like they sell at Home Depot.
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Butterfly bushes bloom on NEW growth. You will have blooms on the areas that you had cut down. Can you tell the blooms are on cut down pieces? Next spring, go to a home center store and buy yourself something that you can handle to cut the bush down like you did before. Don't be afraid of cutting it down too much, it will spring back good as new when the warm weather hits. Those bushes are amazing after you cut them all the way down.
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Not only have I never seen Buddleia reseeding around waste places/roadsides in this area, I can't even get it to survive in my garden, so I don't see invasiveness as an issue locally. I am highly dubious about the proposition that non-native plants supply no nourishment to native insect/animal species. Clearly chickadees and lots of other birds/animals have adapted to using these plants. There was an article in the Sunday New York Times last week from a garden writer emphasizing this (and recommending that people plant a wide variety of native and non-native plants to nourish the local wildlife)*. *this writer's recommendations probably should be taken with a grain of salt, seeing as how his article was primarily about gardening with climate change (he seems to think that a single colder than normal winter is good evidence of climate change, which actually is documented not by single seasonal variation but changes occurring over many years). Here is a link that might be useful: gardening for climate change This post was edited by eric_oh on Sat, May 10, 14 at 11:14
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I will get out and snap pics later. I know I have 'Black Knight' in the butterfly garden although the flowers never seem quite as dark as they appear in the catalogs - it is always blooming in such hot direct sun, it seems to deepen toward the end of the season. That one is perhaps as tall as me - 66" or so. And then I have a very large white - it is tall well over my head at 7' I'd say I believe it is 'White Profusion'. I know for sure I bought 'Nanjo Blue' and for a time and it was lower growing although it seemed to get very wide and the flowers weren't very bright - I thought I transplanted it out to my island bed and that one is blue but it gets much taller now. Maybe I replaced it and forgot... The one that interests me a lot is 'Dartmoor' that gets clusters of flowers - I wonder if they all age at the same rate? This site shows the English Butterfly series that really are supposed to be compact. 'Peacock' looks very nice. And how about those variagated ones like 'Santana' - although it gets quite tall. I did have 'Honeycomb' at one time - it just never thrived for me like the others, may have been the location. Here's anice site located really close to where I lived in Akron, Ohio with a good selection... Here is a link that might be useful: Dayton Nursery Buddlea Varieties
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kmvanatten
15 years ago
I have some plants that I use for similar effect (fall color): Chinese Pistache -- Pistacia chinensis 'Red Push' can get pretty tall (25 - 40 ft.), but have beautiful red leaves in winter; California Grape -- Vitis californica 'Roger's Red' is a vine with a brilliant winter foliage display and edible berries; Sumac (Rhus) has some species and cultivars that have brilliant red fall foliage, and one even smells of lemonade; and Scarlet Bush -- Hamelia patens x 'Sierra Red'.

Good luck
petzold6596
15 years ago
I have 4 B. davidii in southern NM and they do not die back in winter. In fact they have very strong woody stems. If you cut them back heavily, they will send up new shots from the base.
kmvanatten
15 years ago
Hrm..

I would Check with Mountain States Nursery, as they commercially grow the 'red push' varietal to trade, and would be the ones to sell them to public nurseries. Baker's and White Tanks Nursery are also good bets.

Sweetgums are nice, but are really messy with their leaves and spiky balls. I really wouldn't recommend them unless you are into the maintenance.
odiliabru
5 years ago
AZ nursingstudent: My husband and I were at the Moon Valley Nursery 13040 W Cottonwood St in Surprise Az just last week. They do have the Chinese Pistache tree you are looking for. Their number is 623-399-4830 If this is too far for you they would transport it to a Moon Valley closer to you, they have 50% off trees right now, although you wpould have to check if the Pistache is included in the sale.
HU-353942661
last year
Many nursery catalogs state that burning bush cannot be sent to Arizona and several other states. it is considered an invasive species and is also toxic. to dogs.

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