Buddleia "Miss Ruby" |
Buddleia "Peach Cobbler" |
Buddleia "Peach cobbler" |
My goal was to have a fast growing shrub with nectar bearing flowers for insects and hummingbirds. Especially honeybees.
Online photos of buddleia flowers are usually cropped or pruned to show the pretty, but not the ugly. There is a lot of pretty but also a lot of ugly.
As the flowers fade, they turn brown. They brown from the start to the end, over what seems to be a few weeks. That leaves a choice: Deadhead, which removes a lot of 'fresh' flower too, or leave the flower on the plant until it's totally brown, which is not attractive.
These photos show the "pretty", except for the bottom photo that shows the "ugly" too.
I will deadhead them. There should be lots of new flowers following deadheading.
In my garden, the "Cobbler" type buddleias ("Peach Cobbler" and "Blueberry Cobbler") seem to grow much faster and look more weedy, compared to the "Miss" type buddleias (Miss Molly and Miss Ruby). The flowers on the "Miss" buddleias are more compact and richer in color.
Buddleia "Blueberry Cobbler" |
Buddleia "Peach Cobbler" |