This Morning: Daisy talks about winter gardening tasks
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To make sure your buddleja looks voluptuous and vivacious, you need to make sure to prune the bush before it hits growing season. For some varieties of buddleja, that means getting the secateurs out before the end of February. A thorough pruning in spring will guarantee a beautiful display in the summer months – here’s how to prune a buddleja.
Your gardening gloves may have been in storage for the winter, but as the countdown to spring begins, it’s time to get them out again.
Buddleja – sometimes spelled buddleia – is a popular and versatile bush, beloved by Britons and British bees and butterflies alike.
One of the most common varieties, buddleja davidii, is a particularly fast-growing plant which needs regular pruning.
According to Gardeners’ World, with hard pruning in late winter and early spring, some varieties of buddleja can grow to between two and three metres tall in summer.
What is the best time of year to prune a buddleja?
Buddleja davidii can be pruned as early as February, as long as the weather is fairly mild.
In warmer parts of the UK – such as the south – or if your buddleja is well-sheltered, you could be preparing to prune in a couple of weeks’ time.
Don’t be afraid about pruning your buddleja too hard; a thorough pruning will only encourage the bush to grow back even fiercer.
Sometimes known as the ‘butterfly bush’ because of its attractiveness to the colourful insects, pruning your buddleja davidii in February can result in earlier flowering.
Buddleja alternifolia and buddleja globosa won’t take kindly to a hard pruning in early spring, but most other types of buddleja will be perfectly happy.
Pruning your buddleja in Feburary or March should guarantee flowers for July.
However, if you’d prefer a later bloom, you could save pruning until May for an August flowering.
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Your buddleja may even continue flowering into early Autumn, September and October, attracting late-summer butterflies, such as tortoiseshells.
If you have multiple buddlejas, you can even vary the pruning on each bush so they flower at different times, and guarantee at least one will be in bloom at any time.
How to prune a buddleja
Whenever you decide to prune your buddleja, you should start by trimming back the top growth with secateurs so you can see what you’re doing.
The buddleja stems can be very thick, so you may need a pruning saw to tackle some of the woodier bits.
Cut back the thick woody stems, so they’re between 30 and 60 centimetres off the ground, depending on how big you’d like your bush to get.
Remove any dead stubs or branches, and remove any branches that are crossing each other in order to enable healthy growth.
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