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Buddlia

My Buddlia has flowers high up on a 2m trunk.  If I cut it to ground level, will I kill it?

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,103

    Highly unlikely - but I wouldn't cut it quite that low - I'd reduce it's height by half this autumn when it's finished flowering to prevent it getting rocked by the wind over the winter - then in early March cut it all back to just below knee height.  Give it a sprinkling of Fish Blood and Bone and stand well back - it'll flower beautifully for you next summer, and the flowers will be at a height where you can see and enjoy them. image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 22,865

    I have had them like that, took a chain saw to them and they shoot out everywhere next year.

    June can't prune flower stalks she would need a ladder, but it definitely needs coming down,  I have pruned autumn and Spring, it doesn't make much difference here, only that I get bigger flowers with an autumn prune, but if you are in a cold area it's best to wait till spring.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LynLyn Posts: 22,865

    I could have done with one of those today, just attacked the rambling rose, miles of it, he is going to be so pleased when he gets home and I ask him to pick it!

    I used to prune hard in the autumn where we used to live, about six miles from here, wouldnt risk it here though, just do a trim.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • DorcasDorcas Posts: 159

    Our young neighbour had a huge old bush in his garden that wasn't doing much so I suggested he gave it a ruthless prune last autumn.  He hacked (and I use the word advisedly!) it back to a 2 foot stump and this year it's a mass of soft growth and flower spikes, covered in butterflies.  Sometimes being cruel in the garden pays dividendsimage

  • I have a buddleia,,,dowsed it with glyphosate, cut it down to soil level with a chain saw...and yet it thrives and looks better than ever...... Arrrgh!  image

    Pleeese, no more questions about pruning buddleia. image

  • Tetley wrote (see)

    Dont read them David......not good for your blood pressure image

     

    Nah!....It's the absence of apostrophes that sends my BP up. image

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,103

    David - what sends my BP up is when I read back and realise I've put in superfluous apostrophes image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Dovefromabove wrote (see)

    David - what sends my BP up is when I read back and realise I've put in superfluous apostrophes image

     

    I do both, Dove image maybe I'm competing for Verd's (was that one right?) 'mischievous'  mantle. image

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