Buddleia Buzz

Mine is 2 years old and has already had a good amount of blooms and I have religiously dead headed. However lots of the leaves are now going yellow so I'm guessing it needs food?? What should I give it?

 

@cindy Could it be overwatering? Post a photo, always better than a description.

 

I doubt it is overwatering as its in a bed with Platycodon(?) balloon flower and Linum which are doing great (so far) and the bed is quite dry. Ive given the Buzz a couple extra waters this year but that's all.

 

@cindy I just checked my buddleias and they all seem to have this a little more than usual, I think it could be due to all the rain we've had in June. Hard to tell from a photo, but is your soil like mine, clay?

Platycodon grandiflorus, the hoverflies always seem to gather around mine as soon as 2-3 flowers open.

Nick

 

Im on the south east coast so my soil has quite a lot of clay in places but having said the bed that's its in has been well worked and the soil is quite loose. Im thinking of cutting it right back but that will leave a horrible gap

 

Probably doesn't need feeding then Cindy, your clayey soil should be fertile enough, especially considering the plant's age. Best to not prune back hard until March, I think. What I would do in your situation is if the problem gets a lot worse, take the thing out and add some coarse grit to the soil, mix it in well. Make some deep holes in your planting hole using a large fork, especially around the bottom. Helps when mine have occasionally struggled in my heavy clay soil.

Don't know if you've read these, I found them useful... identification test is worth doing.

Clay soils / RHS Gardening

Clay soils: plants for / RHS Gardening

Nick

 

Thanks Nick.

 

Hi I am a new member...not sure if this is the correct way to ask for advice...but here goes...
We wanted to introduce a Buddlia into our garden to attract butterflies bees etc...having lost one a few years ago..so purchased a Miniature Buzz variety Indigo....so disappointed with it...it has gone quite leggy and flowers buds appear on each branch...but never seem to open appear dried up...? we have watered it and gave it some slow release granules when planted in September last year...pruned in March as instructed...feel like disposing of it and going back to one in the border...

 

Hiya Jilly43 ...welcome

I grew Buzz Magenta and Buzz Ivory about 5 years ago. I too was disappointed in them both. The first year saw Ivory full of flower and was great.
The next year less impressive. Magenta didn’t do much at all.
Buzz needs more feeding and better soil than the ordinary buddleias but.....

I think the usual buddleias are far better....you can keep them compact by hard pruning every year and keep them flowering by dead heading

 

@Jilly43 I took some cuttings of a yellow buddleia from someone's garden last year and have been very impressed with the amount of bees it has attracted given it's size, not sure of the variety, but I'm sure with @Verdun's advice it would be well worth it.

 

Think it’s called weyeriana.....I’ll have to double check that...but I’ve always known it as sungold or the yellow buddleia mazambo.
I have planted it before but elsewhere but I am reminded to grow it here ...good suggestion Mazambo

Think I’ll grab some cuttings from it this week

 

I think Buddleia x weyeriana 'Golden Glow' is the one you have due to the lilac buds @mazambo. These are a hybrid of davidii and globosa.

The Buddleja Garden - Buddleia weyeriana

@Jilly43 I would simply plant it in the ground (in a sunny spot, of course) adding a decent amount of grit for drainage. I find that these generally do much better in the ground than in containers and very rarely need watering once established, but that may partly be due to my heavy clay soil. When pruning I treat these differently to the species which I hard prune, reducing only to a third of their height. Here is my 'Ivory' which is now over 5 ft tall.

Nick

 

Excellent Nick....better than mine was. You may well be right about the heavy soil

 

@Verdun It's also incredibly fertile, but after a few years some of my plants need feeding to keep them performing well IMO. I am particularly noticing this with my roses, they initially did well and were very floriferous during the first 5-6 years but will need a little help next year, I think.

Nick

 

Constantly learning arent we Nick?