Buddleia 'Blue Chip' ~ Lo & Behold® Blue Chip Butterfly Bush (2024)

FAQs

Is lo and behold butterfly bush invasive? ›

Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip' butterfly bush set the standard for non-invasive dwarf buddleia. A tidy, mounded habit, fragrant, purple-blue flowers, and continuous bloom without the need to deadhead combine to make this a landscaper favorite. Non-invasive and approved for sale in Oregon.

It has all the fragrance and butterfly appeal of traditional varieties in a small, easy to maintain package. 'Blue Chip' stays under three feet tall without any pruning, and blooms continuously from mid summer to frost without deadheading. It is frost tolerant, non-invasive and very easy to grow.

These are sun-loving plants that will not bloom if they don't get at least six hours of daily sun. Too much or too little water. Butterfly bush likes plenty of moisture, but not sogginess.

Broadleaf, deciduous, low-growing, multi-branched, compact shrub, to a height of about 2.5 ft, with a spreading habit.

They grow rapidly and their seeds spread aggressively into natural areas, making them a potential noxious weed. It's recommended that if you have butterfly bushes, you should remove the spent flower clusters to prevent seeding. Each flower can produce 40,000 seeds!

Light: Butterfly bushes grow and flower best in full sun. They will grow fine in part shade, especially in warmer climates, but their flowering may be reduced. Soil: Butterfly Bushes are not particular about the soil conditions, as long as it drains well. Poorly-drained soils can cause root rot.

Typically, a butterfly bush will live about 10 years. You may find some plants that live longer than that, but it's a rare case. Proper care of a butterfly bush will help it live longer and thrive in your garden.

Pruning and Deadheading

Deadheading your plants means snipping off any browning flower clusters to encourage more flowering though the bloom season. Butterfly bushes bloom best on younger, vigorous growth and later in the season.

Butterfly bushes are full sun plants. That means they should get at least six hours of bright sun each day. It doesn't need to come all at once – it can be in chunks throughout the day. In very hot climates, a bit of afternoon shade is permissible.

Buddleia usually bloom continuously throughout late summer and fall, stopping only with the first frost. Removing spent flowers will keep the plant looking neat and encourage additional blossoms. To deadhead, cut the stem back to the first set of leaves, several inches below the flower.

How do you prune a blue chip buddleia? ›

Buddleia Blue Chip can be pruned back hard after flowering, and this will help the plant to become ever more compact and produce more bloom for the following year. In the late winter months, the shrub can be pruned all the way to the ground to encourage a more abundant flower production in the summer.

Buddleia has deep roots and produces a lot of seeds, which allows it to spread and take over an area easily. Removed from its natural environment, the butterfly bush can become an aggressive invader. When planted in gardens or along roadsides, it can crowd out native vegetation and change the local ecosystem.

Buddleja davidii (butterfly bush) is a shrub (family Buddlejaceae) with a cluster of pink to purple flowers and narrow leaves found in the San Francisco Bay area and coastal ranges of California, and is invasive in the Pacific Northwest. It is native to China. It favors riparian and bottomland habitat.

Butterfly bushes come in 2 general categories- a “larger” size that grows between 3 to 5 feet in width and 5 to 10 feet in height and the “dwarf” size that grows between 2 to 4 feet in width and 2 to 4 feet in height. There are various colors and bloom shapes that come in both categories.

Yes, they do. The wild species Buddleia davidii spreads rapidly, invading riverbanks, reforested areas, and open fields. It forms thick, shrubby thickets that preclude the development of other native species such as willow. Butterfly bush is considered invasive in many states, as well as England and New Zealand.

But do prune your butterfly bush.

The warmer your climate, the more you should cut back your butterfly bush each spring. Even dwarf varieties like our Lo & Behold^® series still need pruning – you'll just be cutting back less than you would on a variety that reaches 8' tall.