Deadheading Buddleiia

[debbiem]

I'm not sure if I'm going the right way about deadheading Buddleiia - do you snip off the flower and leave the two leaves immediately underneath on the plant? I've happily been going about snipping off the lot, but now I'm wondering whether this is right.

[4pygmies]

Well, I don't know if I do it right either Debbie but if I deadhead a plant (which I don't very often as I usually want the seed) I would follow down the stem to the first pair of leaves and cut there. When I chop a Buddleja it's usually because it's got too big for its place and is getting in my way so I would tend to be fairly brutal and cut it hard back. Dunno if that's right but it works for me...

[ladystargazer]

I never bother to dead-head Buddleia. The birds, especially little finches and an occasional wren, seem to feed on the seeds throughout the winter.
I prune them hard in late spring - that way it flowers later in the year - mine's still got some small flower 'cones' in bloom - unless there is wind damage and I need to remove a stem/branch.

But I'm talking about B. davidii - perhaps yours is a different one.

[debbiem]

Thanks 4P and LSG I think all my Buddleiias are B.davidii of one kind or another, except a Globosa which is just a baby and hasn't really got going yet. I'm beginning to think that deadheading them in the name of getting more flowers isn't the way to go - the two leaves immediately underneath the flowers are so close it's very difficult not to snip them off too and I'm noticing I'm getting less and less flowers all round. So leaving on all the dead flowers doesn't interfere with getting more flowers? It doesn't seem to.

[4pygmies]

I think because they are woody shrubs, rather than perennial flowers, that they don't react to pruning in the quite same way. Their time scale is a bit different so they don't respond so quickly maybe! If you pruned them hard back as soon as the first flowers started going off it might stimulate a second flush of flowers but not on the same scale as a herbaceous plant, for example. My white Buddleja seems to flowers for a long time anyway but it grows over the path so it gets chopped....

[debbiem]

That's next on my list - a white one. Funny thing is, every single cutting I've filched from wherever has never come to anything. BUT I have a very promising looking one at the moment.......it's looking good.
Two of my Buddleiias that I've religiously been deadheading seem to be shrinking - most of the time I've been snipping off those two leaves underneath as well, it must be wrong. I think I'll give 'em a break and leave them alone from now on.

[The witch]

I cut mine back by a third in the Autumn, to avoid wind rock, then hard back in the spring.

I took a cutting from the one I had in my old garden which was a dark purple, and potted up a seedling I found near the garage where I used to bag up prunings etc for the tip. I then chose the strongest plant to use here in our new garden. But guess what, it's white I can't recall any white buddleia growing any where near my old house though.

[debbiem]

Sounds like it could have done a fair bit of travelling to wind up near the garage then.

[The witch]

It's a mystery Debbie - perhaps it appeared by