I’ve blended emotions about rising and selling butterfly bushes. On the one hand, they’re stunning and dependable backyard vegetation; however, their weedy nature can’t be denied. Maintain these information in thoughts earlier than shopping for one in all these shrubs.
Butterfly Bush Info
Butterfly bush’s weedy to invasive nature is because of prolific seed manufacturing. Butterfly bushes are extensively adaptable to quite a lot of circumstances, simply settling into pure and disturbed landscapes—even concrete cracks (picture beneath).
Throughout our six-year trial on the Chicago Botanic Backyard, seedlings had been noticed at nonweedy ranges in our backyard. Butterfly bush shouldn’t be grown—or needs to be grown with warning—in areas the place they’ve change into troublesome. B. davidii is banned on the market in Oregon and Washington, the place it’s thought of an invasive weed, and plenty of different states from coast to coast have it on their watch lists. Solely 20 states don’t presently listing B. davidii as a weedy or invasive downside.
Whereas deadheading and removing seedlings are useful in lowering the potential unfold of butterfly bush, plant breeders is likely to be the reply to the issue. Myriad new seedless or low-fertility hybrids have trickled into the market in recent times.
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“Sterile” Butterfly Bush Varieties
In 2011, Oregon authorized the sale of cultivars that produce 2 p.c or much less viable seed. Oregon prohibits these sterile hybrids from being referred to as butterfly bush as a result of the title is simply too carefully linked in commerce to B. davidii. In Oregon, these vegetation should be labeled as summer season lilac, nectar bush, or seedless butterfly bush. The varieties listed beneath are thought of sterile:
B. davidii ‘Asian Moon’
B. davidii ‘Miss Molly’
B. davidii ‘Miss Ruby’
Flutterby™ sequence
Lo & Behold® sequence
A Prime-Performing Sterile Butterfly Bush
‘Purple Haze’ (picture beneath) is simply one of many compact and sterile cultivars within the groundbreaking Lo & Behold® sequence. Deep purple–blue flowers had been copiously and constantly produced; as a result of the plant is sterile, all power is put into making flowers slightly than seeds. Its numerous blooms arch outward and downward atop low-spreading vegetation. Its brief, compact behavior makes ‘Purple Haze’ excellent for massing or utilizing as a floor cowl. The genetic make-up of the Lo & Behold® sequence features a few species which are much less appropriate for chilly areas, so winter hardiness was on our minds. In contrast to Lo & Behold® ‘Blue Chip’, which has died in three consecutive winters, ‘Purple Haze’ has been reliably root-hardy.
—Richard Hawke is director of decorative plant analysis on the Chicago Botanic Backyard.
To see the Chicago Botanic Backyard’s plant-trial outcomes on butterfly bush, go right here.
