It will continue to bloom, but after it has enough uncut blooms on it that are going to seed, the blooms will become fewer and fewer. In the past I stood on my lawn chair or a ladder to deadhead the spent blooms on my tall butterfly bushes, but that got real old, so I've planted bushes that are supposed to be more moderate in size, like 'Ellen's Blue', 'Attraction', and 'Black Knight' - I've pruned my 'White Profusion' severely for the past two years, and it only grew to be about 6' tall instead of the 9' it used to grow, which makes it much easier to keep deadheaded. I also pruned my 'Black Knight' severely, because it has such a scraggly growth pattern - it only grew to about 6' tall last year without severe pruning. I don't know if 'Ellen's Blue' and 'Attraction' will really be moderately sized bushes as advertised, but if they're not, I can just prune them - 9' tall butterfly bushes just aren't practical. It won't hurt your BB to prune it, it'll revitalize it. MissSherry

Well, this is sort of timely. I have been reading a lot about nectar. First, let me say that I have not read any study that says that butterfly bush makes butterflies crazy. But there is more to nectar than meets the eye (I find this to be true of most stuff concerning butterflies). First of all nectar can have different types of sugars, water content, and additional components (it is not just sugar water). To start with most nectar is a combination of three sugars, sucrose, glucose, and fructose in ratios. Butterflies seem to prefer high sucrose ratios and this is what Buddleia has, as do other plants. However, nectar is not just sugar. In addition, it can have amino acids and other allelochemicals. Amino acids can be very important to butterflies. For females that did not get enough nitrogen while larva, they will seek out nectar with additional amino acids to make up this deficiency. One interesting experiment would be to watch your butterfly bush and see if predominantly males or females nectar on it. I have not read if Buddleia has amino acids in the nectar or not. Females will do this till their need is met. In addition, some plants will put noxious chemicals in their nectar to ward off nectar robbers and attract the pollinators it wants. Joe pye weed nectar contains pyrrolizadine alkaloids (PAHs), which are known toxins that both tiger moths and Monarchs use for pheromone production and toxicity. These Leps have adapted to using PAHs. I was interested in Bob's photos showing other butterflies nectaring on Joe Pye weed as it must not affect a lot of butterflies. Or else something else is going on. There are several species of Joe Pye and it may make the difference. Some species of plants have very bitter nectar for use by birds as they don't taste bitter. Another interesting factor is the attractant chemicals that flowers put out to attract pollinators. Many of our native plants put out chemical odors that are way diffent than flowers from Europe and elsewhere in the world. This indicates a separation of our species vs. old world pollinators. I have not read more on this but would be interested to see further study as to whether this makes a difference to butterflies. Clearly, buddleia does have attractants to new world leps. One concern is that when pollinators have a plant that allows for easy nectar, that they don't do the heavy lifting in pollination. In other words, they don't work multiple plants and increase pollination. I suspect this is the case for Buddleia, but I have a hard time believing that the fate of pollination rests on tiger swallowtails. Most important though is that the butterfly has to be able to reach the nectar. This is through a combination of landing ability (based on flower shape) and corolla length (the flower tube). One of the interesting things about butterfly bush is that smaller butterflies probably cannot reach the nectar. The tube length is longer in butterfly bush than in composite flowers (Asteracea). I have not taken the time recently to observe, but would like to know if small butterflies, such as hairstreaks, skippers, blues, etc., can even use butterfly bush. If we are putting in flowers for butterflies, we should put in plants that they can all use or a variety anyway. I guess the lesson is not to rely on any one species to attract butterflies. They need a diversity of plants. This study discusses the nectar content of Buddleia and the prefered varieties. http://www.clemson.edu/cafls/departments/horticulture/research/ornamental/landscape/pdf/butterfly_visitation.pdf Sorry for the book. Nothing in the Lep world is as simple as it seems. Cheers, Elisabeth

Jasenka, I'm not an expert, but I've lost only ONE of my 60 butterfly bushes in our one-acre butterfly sanctuary since 1995. Your locations will provide plenty of sun. I don't think you should use raised beds because the roots spread so much over the years. I have horrible red clay on rather steep slopes and have to amend all my plant beds. For my butterfly bushes I dig beds about 2-feet deep and 4-6 feet wide and remove the red clay. I add A MINIMUM of 80 pounds of top soil, 40 pounds of composted cow manure and 40 pounds of mulch and mix it up thoroughly, and walk on it to firm the soil. I then dig a hole for the plant, fill the hole with water and let it sink in, plant the butterfly bush and firm the soil around it, water it thoroughly again, mulch around it with 3-4 inches of mulch, and water it weekly (IF NEEDED) for the first year. Each year in the late fall, I add mulched leaves around each plant to slowly improve and maintain the soil. I fertilize each butterfly bush once a year in early spring with slow-release fertilizer ( something close to 10-10-10). I deadhead each butterfly bush at least once a week to keep them looking good, to reduce the liklihood of "self seeding, and to help them save their "energy" for more blooming. If you want evewn more blooms and/or want to control the height/width of any butterfly bush, cut it back in the early spring. I cut many of mine back to about 2-3 feet above the ground. some people cut their butterfly bushes back to almost ground level. There is no magic cut-back rule; do what fits your situation. For example, the big butterfly bush with 15-30 butterflies on it much of the day near the top of our butterfly sanctuary that I've posted about has NOT been cut back for two years. I want it to spread because the butterflies love the high places on this butterfly bush. Good luck with your butterfly bushes. mike

I haven't paid much attention to bbs up till reading about them in this forum. Are they kind of wild and weedy looking? Do they attract bees and wasps along w/butterflies? I'm thinking of putting one by a picture window so that we can see the butterflies when we sit inside but am wondering if the plants are too weedy looking for that. I do want to naturalize the new place we are moving to so maybe the bb would look better if it were among other plants in a sunny part of the yard rather than standing on its own in front of the window.Terry