oilpainter, maybe that's true. I will have to rethink. I did have it in a different location last year but still, I only have 5-6 hrs maximum in any area in my garden. I think they got 5 hrs last year but they bloomed fine. They didn't bloom gangbusters though.

AKA as princess flower.It's very pretty but messy,so don't plant it near your car or porch.I have mine planted on a side yard,and the ground below looks like purple carpet,very pretty to me.The leaves look velvety.I like mine . Had to do a lot of moving it around when I first gotit to get the ideal spot for it. kathi

I haven't had any issues with butterfly bush self-seeding here in Z6 but once they bloom I dead head them regularly to prolong the bloom period. I leave the last of the flowers on the plants to go to seed in late autumn. My 5 winter sown plants (i.e., grown from seed) are set in different beds around the garden and grow to nearly 6 ft. each year. Planted around them are peonies, blackberry lily, Siberian iris, Maltese cross, gaura, ornamental grass, daylily, Shasta daisy, balloon flower, gloriosa daisy, baptisia/false indigo + lots of other full sun perennials (most grown from seed via winter sowing). From the OP's photo, it's difficult to know whether or not the corner of the fence area gets full sun (6-8 hours) which butterfly bushes need. I wanted this bed to have a cottage garden look and as you can see, the butterfly bush (center) does fine planted among other sun-loving perennials. Also growing in the bed pictured above are blanket flower, coral bells, astilbe, artemesia/silver mound, Montauk daisy, dianthus, evening primrose, verbascum/mullein, spirea, Cupid's dart, iberis/candytuft & hardy geranium/cranesbill.

try again?