Calling All Monarchs

This morning when I was out in my garden, my eyes rested upon Buddleia, which brings me pleasure when summer arrives. Right now, my largest Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush, is just showing new leaves. They are a perfect green, taper beautifully, and show neither a nick nor a blemish at this point in the season. They are new and beautiful. Two smaller Buddleia varieties are not yet at the stage of leafing out, but I can spy tiny nubs on their grayish stems. These will become their leaves for this season.

Buddleia is a great bush to inspect as spring unfolds. It goes from bare twigs which make nice perches for winter birds, to beauties with leaves that start out by pointing skyward, to explosions of color as blooms mature. Widely available, affordable, and easy to tend, Buddleia bushes pack a big punch. The size of their flowers and their profusion of blooms make them a garden addition that has to be loved.

I used to think Buddleia’s common name, Butterfly Bush, was given for charm rather than meant to be a true description. But Buddleia does attract butterflies. Its blooms will attract not just one butterfly, and not just two. Gardeners will see tiny white butterflies, a Painted Lady or two, and scores of Monarchs. I have included a photo of a Monarch on my Buddleia. The photo does not do the leaves of the Butterfly Bush justice, as there is an Arborvitae behind the bloom, and its foliage is really the only greenery that shows. But the picture does show a visiting Monarch from a past year. She was one of several.

I do not associate a strong perfume with the Butterfly Bush. It will not bowl over the human gardener with a heady scent. But silken-winged gardeners surely know when its flowers are out. And when its flowers are out, wow, do they ever stay out! The tubular flowers, narrowing a little at the terminal ends to form puffy cones of color, last and last.

Caring for a Butterfly Bush is straightforward. But one thing to note is that I clean spent blooms during the season to keep this bush looking fresh. This work is far from overwhelming. Because the blooms last so long, deadheading is infrequent. And because many blooms open around the same time, they dry out at around the same time too. That means my work with scissors—nothing more than scissors for Buddleia’s thin branches—gets done in one fell swoop, and then again, a few times during the season.

If spent blooms are left on the bush longer than I intend, each dried flower typically becomes accompanied by one or two tiny new buds. These small buds look like grayish versions of the larger flower cones. Invariably, while I deadhead, I knock off one or more of these and then wish I had been more careful. After all, more blooms mean more winged visitors. But alas, by the time those buds open to show their color, I have forgotten about those few mishaps while deadheading. The Butterfly Bush puts out so many new blooms, it is hard to dwell on the fact that there could have been more.

Compact Buddleia options, such as the Pugster® varieties from Proven Winners®, are wonderful choices for those who seek the beauty of the Butterfly Bush but cannot fit much more into their gardens. I have become one of those people. While I do have a large Butterfly Bush, the Pugsters® fit better in my garden’s existing open space. I have found that these compact Buddleia options have flowers that are generously sized while the bushes themselves stay small. To me, that indicates that their Monarch magnetism will suffer not at all as I add them to my garden.

Get the camera ready. Butterflies, ahead….