Caring for your Butterfly Garden

Care of butterfly bushes is important.  The main care needed for your butterfly garden will be pruning.  It is essential to prune back your butterfly bushes or they will become very overgrown and full of dead branches and flowers that do not fall off.  Leaving dead matter on a butterfly bush can make the plant look horrible up close and can ruin the overall beauty of your butterfly garden.

A typical butterfly bush will need some sculpting in early Spring.  This is done by cutting back all the branched to leave a main cluster of stems in the center.  This center stem cluster is left tall.  The butterfly bush can grow quite tall and are covered in flowers.  They will grow out of control if they are not tamed.  Some people prefer to let their butterfly garden grow carefree and do not restrain their plants too much, but a yearly pruning will help to keep dead growth to a minimum and make the garden look much more stunning and well kept.

Even in the colder months, the butterfly bush will continue to grow.  In severe winter conditions the plant will often freeze to the ground and then grow back vibrantly once the warmer weather comes.  There is no worry if the plant seems to die in harsh winter conditions.  This is actually better for the plant and allows extraordinary growth in the next growing season.  If you want to have some green growth in the winter months then a good choice is the Golden Butterfly Bush.  This variety will remain green and hardy throughout the year and flowers in early January.

Watering is not a huge requirement for your plants.  As mentioned, they prefer a drier soil.  You can usually get by with watering once a month during the hottest times of the year.  The existing flowers will remain, but in extreme heat new flowers are not produced.