Buddleia Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip Jr.' | Summer Lilac | Wayside Gardens (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.

'Blue Chip' stays under three feet tall without any pruning, and blooms continuously from mid summer to frost without deadheading.

Where to plant. Plant hardy buddleja (see Before you get started above) in ground in a sunny spot– one that receives good light for most of the day – as they will flower best here. Avoid very windy sites, even for hardy B.

Lo & Behold Ruby Chip butterfly bush brings together the best of both, with a tidy 2.5'/. 76m size and dozens of magenta-ruby flower spikes. Fragrant and long-blooming, it keeps putting out fresh flowers without the need to deadhead (i.e., remove old brown flowers).

The Northwest and the Northeast United States have even deemed the butterfly bush an invasive pest because of its ability to invade and suppress other plants from growing. Another negative impact of butterfly bushes is that no native caterpillars or larvae eat butterfly bush leaves.

Butterfly bush is an invasive plant, meaning it crowds out beneficial plants that have naturally grown in your community for centuries. This species originally from Asia readily takes over space where native North American plants would normally thrive.

Butterfly Bush Care

In the first year after planting, these bushes need regular water to develop strong roots. After they're established these plants are relatively drought-tolerant. Fertilizing isn't usually necessary, as it encourages foliage at the expense of flowers.

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.

Although eye-catching, hardy, and seemingly helpful to butterflies and other pollinators, Butterfly Bush is far from beneficial; in fact it's actually an invasive species that can impair the health of our local ecosystems.

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.

What states have banned butterfly bushes? ›

The states of Washington and Oregon have banned it along with many of the new varieties of Buddleia due to this aggressiveness and it cannot be shipped to, or sold in those states.

The good news is that plant breeders have been hard at work, and in the last few years have come up with a new generation of butterfly bushes – ones that are both compact and sterile, meaning less work and no invasiveness.

The scientists chose the butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii) for their experiment because it's a very hardy plant that flowers throughout the year, and mosquitoes are attracted to it.