Yea! :)

I hope it does! I too always had BB issues. Then two seasons ago I planted one, fully expecting it to be a one-season wonder. It's come back two years in a row now. I have no idea what I did differently lol. But it inspired me to plant a couple of Miss Molly BB's this season and I'm hoping for the best.

Is this the first time you are trying one in a container? Were your others in the ground? It's looking good in the photo - hope it makes it!

:)

Dee

Lucky you @diggerdee zone 6 CT...well done. Yes it is the first time trying one in a container and so all my earlier attempts were inground.

(I had forgotten that BB hold onto their leaves very late in the year eh?)

I never had any luck with them in a container and did lose a lot trying them in the ground. The biggest and longest-lived one was one I grew from seed. It eventually died in the winter 2013-2014 after probably close to 10 years in the garden - the stump was large and hard to dig out! I tried a couple of small ones after that one died but they all died in their first winter - except Buzz 'Ivory' which I planted in 2017 and has survived each year so far.... Hopefully it'll last a few more years.

Good luck with the potted one overwintering in the garage. You must be pretty much at the hardiness limit for them however you choose to grow them :-)

Some of these pictures are poor but might be of interest:

The original one here in 2013:

The stump of it dug out May 31 2014:

Buzz 'Ivory' September 17 2019

I've never had any luck with BB, and perhaps now in light of the fact that it is starting to appear on lists of non-native invasives, that is probably a good thing.

I would suggest that you might want to set the pot on a piece of thick styrofoam, and maybe wrap it in something for just a bit more insulation - but if your other perennials survive fine without those measures, probably the BB will, also.

It eventually died in the winter 2013-2014 after probably close to 10 years in the garden

@woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada I remember seeing your wonderful specimen! 13-14...was the winter of that ice storm...right? I say this as I noticed each summer a very impressive BB about 5 minutes away from us by car and one Fall several years back it got blown down in a windstorm and never recovered :(.

I am semi convinced that dwarf varieties are less hardy than the 'original' large ones.

but if your other perennials survive fine without those measures, probably the BB will, also.

Thanks for your confidence @raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio :). It will be an experiment.

Woody, that stump of a Butterfly Bush was huge! I had a few of them that came back for me year after year, but they never reached that diameter of the branches. lol That must have been a winner!

I changed direction in my sunny bed, so I took out the BB. I do miss it though because it attracted so many different beneficials. I just don't get that many different kinds since I let it go.

(I don't think it reflects well on me that each year for the last...decade maybe I start a thread for a plant that I have exactly ZERO success with...clearly I am obsessed ;)).

it is starting to appear on lists of non-native invasives,

I believe that most of all the newer varieties are sterile.

Well, rouge, what else would you post about, but what you aren't having as much success with? And anyway, I seem to remember plenty of threads you start showing a LOT of success with many different plants!

what else would you post about, but what you aren't having as much success with?

Yup @prairiemoon2 z6b MA, I have lots of failures each and every year but it seems that it is only the repeated failures with buddleia that "torments" me! :)

What you really need to do is build yourself a nice stone railway viaduct in the garden. “If you build it they will come.” 😉

P.s. it will retain some leaves all winter. They don’t have protected overwintering buds, just sprigs of small leaves.

Interesting @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK; If I wasn't afraid of heights this might be my next step :).

Yes, the winter of 2013-14 was the winter of the big ice storm and that is probably what did it in…! We miss it still - it was a big favorite of monarch butterflies, and bees. We pruned and deadheaded regularly, which probably helped a lot with keeping it under control and likely contributed to those thick stems on the stump :-)

I don’t worry too much about invasive potential. In 20+ years here we only had one seedling - and it didn’t survive the winter…

Holy moly, woody, that stump is huge! What a job it must have been to dig that out! It kind of scares me because the BB I planted two years ago, that I mentioned above, isn't in an ideal spot, but honestly I didn't expect it to live! Now it's come back and it's bigger and I'm already eyeing the trunk size. I guess if I'm gonna move it I should do it soon. It's in an awkward spot to dig as it's on a slope so it won't be fun!

Rouge, we all have that one plant that torments us. Some of us have two or three (or a dozen) and they do indeed become an obsession lol!

Love that photo floral!

:)

Dee

"I believe that most of all the newer varieties are sterile."

Some. Not all. The Pugster series is not.

And I quote from one website...the pugster series is not completely sterile but also not invasive.

kinda like being a little bit pregnant? ;)

I lost 'Buzz Raspberry' as a potted plant, yep while being stored over in the garage,

Oh NO!

I have better luck with BB in pots than I do in ground, which probably means it's a drainage issue.

Ah @dbarron, a ray of hope!

Regarding drainage. Look at where the one in my picture is growing. They also grow along disused rail lines here on the stone ballast. That’s the kind of drainage they like.

Given the invasive tendencies of the non sterile varieties of this shrub, often mentioned in any thread whose subject is the buddleia, I am thinking they may not be so picky with their drainage requirements provided they 'reside' in a zone 7 or 'warmer'. It appears to me based on my complete lack of success that these plants have great difficulty surviving a CDN hardiness zone of 5 (maybe even zone 6)(micro climates excluded). I am always looking for plants and trees and gardens when I am out and about and it is rare that I ever see a BB.

(Because it is so rare, I recall clearly, about 5years ago that a home not too far away from us had two beautiful BB.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4070102/maybe-i-we-over-think-things#18035471

I am not sure how many seasons after posting those pictures that these wonderful specimens gave up the ghost but unless the owner relocated them to the back, they did die a few years ago.)

And again I suspect that the larger varieties are hardier than these dwarfs.

Now I am always envious of esteemed houzz member @FrozeBudd_z3/4 as he does grow BB year after year but as I recall he has it positioned right next to the much warmer foundation of his home....definitely a micro climate.

Most everything I have said in this thread and this post I have previously said in earlier postings on houzz or GW. Heck I just realized looking at much older posts that I had previously tried a BB in this same container you see in my first post above! Clearly I am 'losing' it!

Rouge, I'm gonna try a plant or two out in open ground, yep what the heck! Of course, as always setting them in deeply and come late autumn, protect the root zone from wet by laying down some plastic and then covering deeply with bags of leaves or THICK sheets of Styrofoam.

@FrozeBudd_z3/4 that is a lot of work to try to over winter a BB that is planted in the "open"! (And to be honest I don't want "it" to work as I will be extra embarrassed with you getting a BB to make it through a zone 3/4 winter, away from your house and here me just looking at one and it croaks!)

Yes, Rouge, you can enjoy mine then! I seldom have lost a plant other than if having been planted too shallow or once to a dang pocket gopher.

I was watching an old episode of Gardener's World yesterday and it was early spring and Monty was pruning his BBush. OMGosh, it was HUGE! I thought your stump and branches were large and thick, Woody. I never saw a Butterfly Bush that tall and wide. And he was cutting it back to about a foot off the ground. Amazing.

But when I watch gardening shows from England, it always leaves me thinking they have some magic soil or weather conditions or something, because everything seems to grow better. When Monty digs anywhere in his garden, the soil looks perfect, so fluffy and easy to work with. He sticks a trowel in and barely has to move it. [g]

Don’t be fooled by garden shows. My soil is definitely not perfect! But the weather is pretty good for gardening. Not too cold in winter. Not too hot in summer. And rain all year round.

Floral - Just one person's opinion, from afar, never having been to England, but from all evidence, it doesn't get any better than English gardens. There is something you all have there, whether it be technique or natural ability or weather or magic. [g] I accept that in reality it could just be the Estate Gardens and the gardening shows that make it seem that way. But it seems like the average person on the whole has more gardening interest and effort than we have in this country.

Pm2 - we travelled to England several times in the early 1990s and always had the Good Gardens Guide book in the car when we drove around! Such a wonderful garden thing to do - I highly recommend it (DH used to sigh and roll his eyes every morning as I said ’these are the gardens we’ll visit today…’ But he enjoyed them too :-) floral - I have always wondered what the impact on English gardens/climate would be if the Gulf Stream shut down due to climate change….

They also grow along disused rail lines here on the stone ballast.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, I've been thinking off and on about your post and the picture. I have tracked down an equivalent of a horticultural/chicken GRIT. (Maybe this should be for another thread but it appears that the use and availability of horticultural grit is much more of a UK 'thing' than it is in say...Canada.) The plan will be to plant a newly acquired BB in basically almost all stone/grit.

I had a "Butterfly Heaven" for several years before the polar vortex nearly killed it. It did produce several seedlings, a couple of which I transplanted to a well drained spot in the yard, and they have come back strong every year since then. I also see some larger BB's on other properties in my area that have survived long term (including through the polar vortex years). The hardiness of different varieties does vary. I'm guessing that a few of the older varieties like "Black Knight", "Pink Delight", and "White Profusion" are hardier than average, and there is a variety called "Windy Hill" (no experience with it myself) that was selected for superior hardiness. Some of the newer varieties apparently have good hardiness as well. Even though my buddleias produce seedlings on a fairly regular basis, they're never going to become invasive in this climate. Photo of a visitor this past summer (7/21/21) on my strongest growing Butterfly Heaven seedling:

@arbordave (SE MI) I suspect lots that it is the full sized BBs that are the hardiest.

Rouge, I'm gonna try a plant or two out in open ground, yep what the heck!

@FrozeBudd_z3/4 I know its early but can you let us know when you see signs of life?

Yes, I have spied new growth on a few of the foundation planted buddleia and also the salvia 'Amistad' is beginning to push up new stems, surprising as has been a predominantly cold and windy spring. I have yet not planted any buddleia out in the open garden.

I am semi convinced that dwarf varieties are less hardy than the 'original' large ones.

I am convinced this is true about *a lot* of plants, not just buddleia.

My favorite buddleia is the old tried and true "Black Knight". Never have had any trouble with it, the deep purple color is saturated and rich, and oh the fragrance! I recall years ago watching the butterflies in the BB section of the nursery, and they clearly preferred the Black Knight over the other varieties they had for sale, which is another reason I'm partial to it. Anecdotally, I've seen this repeatedly with a variety of flowering plants -- the older varieties have something that pollinators prefer. Exactly what that is, or what combination of factors that is, I don't know -- just know what I've observed.

I have had this potted BB out of the garage for about a month and into a full sun location and still not any sign of life :(. I know there is still time but it's not looking good. I will give it till.....June 1st and then I am taking it's container.

'Black Knight' and 'Royal Red' planted snug together, the colors look great with one another.

'Buzz Midnight', being its usual slow poke self, but I carefully scratched down and it's coming!