One of my Buddleja seedlings

I'm calling this one 'Purple Patch' (out of 'Black Knight). It's one of three buddleja seedlings I have kept. The other two, I'm not sure I'm going to keep. One is white (out of 'Black Knight' of all things), and the other is almost pink (out of 'Pink Delight'). The white makes an enormous flower spike. I've been calling it 'White Giant'. Not sure I like White Buddleja though. I'm keeping this one though.

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Lovely!
The butterflies LOVE the white buddleja though.... (more on ours than on the standard mauve)

I do love my buddleja - most of the ones I have were cutting grown although I have filled out a few gaps with purchased cultivars like 'Black Knight' and a couple of pinks. They have performed outstanding well in a seriously tough environment and have delivered great results as fast growing windbreaks.

Beautiful Simon! I used to have a white buddleia called "Spring Promise" with a fragrance reminiscent of Freesias. I'm happy to pay postage for rooted cuttings of your white and darkest mauves & pinks. Absolutely hopeless with cuttings of this plant - Bruce gave me quite a few of his and none took!

I only have two (Nanho Blue & Royal Red) in my garden at the moment, and both butterflies and bees love them:

Here is Royal Red this morning:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - the heat of the morning has faded it somewhat - its aiming for 32 deg plus today and its already showing in the garden.

I've found the apricot coloured one to be a very strong grower. It's one of my favs. Along with the darkest ones and the pinks.

Wendy, Simon, do you cut yours back? A neighbour who has one seems to cut it back every winter and whilst it has lots of blooms, they are very small (its a light mauve). I have learned that they are not half bad as cut flowers either on their own or with some lovely roses.

Who can be bothered pruning?!

We just trim as little as required to keep them back from paths etc. We want them to be tall hedges and our situation is pretty tough going for them (they don't get watered after their first summer).

ETA: 33C out there but this gives an idea of how high some originally potbound cuttings ended up when shoved into granite-based subsoil and only being watered by runoff from the driveway:
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(the apricot ones are the biggest and they are the least likely to show moisture stress)

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I have a lot of different Buddleja.

So far I have collected:

1. Black Knight. No photos of this atm... it has just finished flowering and was a giant 20ft high plant that I cut back to a stump. It reshot from the stump. I was hoping cutting it back with the chainsaw like I did would have killed it but it didn't... I have cuttings of it to put in a better (more appropriate spot) and don't want this behemoth growing where it is. When we first bought this place, this enormous buddleja hadn't been touched for ten years and it has a trunk near 50cm wide (there's a big low stump in the garden now and the damned thing is still resprouting) and my kids called it the Whomping Willow This was my first Buddleja and I started to collect them because I just love them (though am not keen on their perfume).

2. Pink Delight:

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This is by far the most well behaved of the bunch. It stays more dense and its flowers appear more evenly spread over the whole plant. It's a most pleasing colour in then garden.

4. Royal Red:

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A lovely colour but a difficult bush to get looking good. Tends to want to be a sky-rocket and produce all its flowers at the top of 10ft high stems that stick straight up.

5. Golden Glow:

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By far the most rampant of them all. I cut this one back to 40cm stumps and it still comes back with a vengence each year. This year I am digging it out and replanting cuttings of it somewhere I can plant it and forget it and let it go wild. I had visions of its yellow and the pink of 'Pink Delight' growing side by side but it just monsters PD:

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6. Silver Anniversay: A hybrid between B. crispa and B. loricata. It has silver foliage and stays about 1.5m tall and wide. One of my favs. I'm currently striking a whole swag of these to make a low informal hedge along my house. Appreciates more water than the others although is still very tolerant of dry periods.

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7. Buddleja loricata:

A species Buddleja that stays low growing and is wide and dense. Not as fast growing as the others but is VERY floriferous. Mine isn't quite in flower yet. Has shorter more silvery leaves.

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8. Santana: Hasn't arrived yet. Just bought it. Flowers like 'Royal Red' with variegated foliage.

9. Unknown Apricot: Hasn't arrived yet.

10. Unknown Mauve: Trying to find mine... I have pots of buddleja everywhere and I think I still have it somewhere... if not will have to go down to the river and grab some more cuttings. It's an unnamed seedling that self sowed down by the Don River near Devonport. It's a lovely soft mauve. They don't flower well in pots and so need to be released into the ground to see what they are

11. 'White Giant'

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This is my white seedling. It's a huge bush and the flower spikes are enormous. It is nearly finished flowering now but this gives you an idea of the size of the spike. This spike is about 50cm long on 10ft tall straight stems that stick straight up. It branches well and will make an enormous plant over time.

12. 'White Bouquet':

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This is why I'm not sure I like white buddleja. 'White Bouquet' makes lots of lovely white flowers but the spikes don't all open at once, which means they don't all die at once meaning they have large sections of dead flowers on the same spike as new flowers and the dead ones really stand out and look bad against the white flowers.

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Framed by Japanese Maple

13. Buddleja lindleyana: no photos. I hate this plant! It is being ripped out any day! Visually it's got nice leaves, the flowers are OK, BUT... it suckers like crazy and spreads to form a thicket. So, it's outta here! If anyone wants a piece of this they are welcome to it but be warned... it will take over the world.

I am trying something different with mine as well... I took 8 cuttings; 2 of each of four colours (pink, white, dark purple, and reddish) and I bound them together with raffia arranged mixed up and stuck the bundle into a pot. They all struck. The idea is that theyt will grow up and into each other making a 4-coloured bush and over time the different stems will graft together to make a sinlgle trunk.... it's ready to be put into the ground now so over the next year or two it should start to work

Rita, yes I cut mine back at the beginning of spring each year. I like a more compact plant and I don't want them to get too big as they will shade the roses.

It reshot from the stump. I was hoping cutting it back with the chainsaw like I did would have killed it but it didn't...

I know of someone who takes theirs down to a stump with a chainsaw every year. And it still gets to be metres high. They are in a higher rainfall area than myself.
In some shires it's illegal to sell them as they have been declared a weed due to the ease of striking new plants when people go and dump garden waste in the bush.

I'm trying to remember the names of the cultivars I've bought and that Silver Anniversary looks right for the small/dwarf silver leaf one I have. That was the first to flower for me this season.
Of the whites - I think I have 'White Bouquet'. The name seems familiar.
So do a couple of other names. Will have to try and dig out the tags (if they were kept!) Some were collected as cuttings.
The number of butterflies smothering them the last 2 summers has been stupendous.

Love my budds to bits , they are spread all around the yard , and they can grow as big and wide as they like , they make wonderful hedging screening plants and none of them [even the self sown seedlings ] really impinge on the roses .

Buddleias rock !

Totally agree.

I found tags for 'Silver Anniversary', 'Joan' and 'Pink Delight'. Haven't had any seedlings come up. Plenty of time though... LOL

Wish I had some of the colours mentioned here. I only have 5 different colours so far. I agree with whoever said the white attracts butterflies, but to my nose the mauve one has the most overwhelming fragrance on a warm day. I put a row along outside our bedroom window because I do like the perfume.

PM me Betty and I will send you cuttings of any of the ones I have mentioned here, including my seedlings.

Many thanks, Simon. This place needs more shade so fingers crossed I can get your big ones to grow. Tomorrow I might try and find names for those I have.

I must admit that up until December 2011, I was a Buddleja virgin. I bought my first two (Black Knight) and they are flowering nicely.

I love the idea of a chainsaw for shrub management.... I new there was a reason I got my Level II Certificate in Chainsaw Management!!

Simon I also love the creativeness of your idea with the 4 colours together. It sounds like there was no grafting involved, just wrapping the cuttings together with the raffia. Have I got that right? Please let us know how it goes.

.............Andrea

Gosh these are gorgeous... I've got a Black knight, struck off some cuttings I was given and a Silver anniversary but so far they are babies... scrawny little twigs! The flowers they do put up are gorgeous though. I can definitely see a few more getting tucked around here - though heavens knows where!

Wendy, your variety of Buddleia's are awesome and I love the way you've captured those butterflies going to town on them! I particualarly love your apricot one.

Simon, you 'White Giant' is awesome, does it have a scent? I also am very curious how your 'Buddleia all-sorts' creation turn outs. I wish I had the room to try something like that, may e if kept at as dwarf?

Andrea you are so funny! Be very careful with that chainsaw of yours!

Thanks, Rita. I'll admit I orginally took most of the pics of the butterflies rather than the flowers...
If you ever want a piece (or two .. haha) of the apricot one then just let me know. It strikes very easily!

Andrea, I got a kick out of your 10am post, you must be an Aussie with a very good sense of humour.

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Regards David.

We have never had any Buddleja's but I must say they do look a very impressive shrub. Very pretty flowers all and I really like Wendy's one with the butterfly on it.

David you must be joking, what legal practitioner advised you re the RTA prosecution or was it a wild guess on your part?

Did I type driving through or walking through? Either way it makes no b+*#!+y difference.

Could be the end of a very good forum.

Hmmmmmmm... no legal ramifications here that I can see...

Simon I agree, what next?

What next? Buddlejas I reckon

Betty, I have just taken about 20 cuttings of 'Purple Patch' and will send some of these up to you. If you could go through my list and let me know which ones you'd like then I'll do the same for these as well

Rita, what I've asked Betty to do is to visit the post office and buy a plastic, pre-paid, A4, self-addresses envelope and send it down. My finances are a bit tight at the moment so if you would like any buddleja cuttings (I'll help you strike them lol ) it would be great if you could do the same. They really are the easiest things in the world to strike but I think it comes back to the way they are prepared because apart from spending a bit of time carefully preparing them I don't do anything special with them. I just stick them all together into a pot, soak them, and leave them, making sure they don't dry out but are never too wet. I don't use rooting hormone with them either. I think I have a few 'Black Knight' cuttings that are already growing too that you are welcome too as well. They would trim down to fit into the A4 envelope easily I would imagine

RE: the group planting thing I'm trying. There is no grafting done at all by me. I just tie them together with raffia and plant them together. This is a trick I learnt from a bonsai book I have that shows how to make multi-trunked bonsai by putting multiple single stemmed seedlings of the same species togetherand letting them grow together. As they grow the trunks swell and eventually grow into each other forming a natural graft. My hope is that these ones will eventually do the same thing. The trick is to match buddleja together that will have similar habits. For example 'Pink Delight' is more of a weeping one here. It would be silly to try and combine it with something like 'Golden Glow' that would over-power it. Will be interesting to see how it ends up. I can already see one variety growing larger and faster than the others