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Buddleja officinalis
Pole butterflybush is a deciduous, early-spring flowering shrub from western China, growing to under 2.5 m, with honey-scented mauve flower panicles that attract butterflies. Hard annual cutting back after flowering and shelter from frost are key to growing it well.
Buddleja officinalis is a deciduous early-spring flowering shrub native to west Hubei, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in China. Discovered in 1875 by Pavel Piasetski, a surgeon in the Russian army, B. officinalis was named and described by Maximowicz in 1880. Introduced to western cultivation in 1908, B. officinalis was accorded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit three years later, and the Award of Garden Merit (record 689) in 2002.
Buddleja officinalis is not fully frost hardy, unable to survive temperatures lower than −10° C, and is best grown against a south-facing wall. The shrub should be cut back hard each year immediately after flowering in spring. Propagation by softwood cuttings is easily accomplished, using vermiculite as a rooting medium.
In the UK the shrub is often grown as a nectar source for vanessid butterflies such as the peacock on emergence from hibernation. Hardiness: RHS H2, USDA zones 8 – 9. One notable cultivar of B. officinalis is Buddleja 'Winter Sun'.
Fountain butterflybush · Dogtail · Buddleja cordata · Butterfly-bush · Buddleja dysophylla · Buddleja fallowiana var. alba · Buddleja fallowiana · Orange-ball-tree · Smokebush · Squarestem butterflybush · Butterfly Bush
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Buddleja officinalis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
