Buddleia Davidii - not flowering

interesting post ... one of my clients has a large one .... not 1 flower yet this year and it has no buds forming yet ...

must be due to the strange weather?

 

I find they usually flower better on new vigorous growth which is why giving it a hard chop in the early spring gets it into action http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=166

 

Mines not flowering yet. I prune mine right down to the ground in February (actually this year I pruned half the stems then, and half in late March to try to spread when it flowers - I'll see if it has worked later on!)

 

Hi FC,
I pruned this to wall height in early March. Just starting to show flowers this week,
Jenny

 

Mine's only just starting to open a few tiny flowers, and I pruned it right back in spring. Think it's the soggy weather.

 

They're not late yet, not up in the north certainly. If there's still no sign in about 4 weeks, then I'd be puzzled.

 

Mine is in full flower at the moment, maybe its just a later flowerer

 

I think that it has grown too tall and mature to flower. It looks lush and well fed but producing an enormous amount of leaf. When I think of them on an old railway siding, they have to work hard to survive and flower, but flower they do. Maybe some potash this Autumn and a sever haircut? Bearing in mind that it branches above your fence top which is useful so try to keep it up around there. Just my opinion, others may have different ideas,

 

Mine is pruned hard in March every year and flowers late July onwards. If I keep dead-heading it goes on indefinitely. No sign of anything yet.

I'd agree that a hard prune might work. You could take it down to about 18" above where the trunk ends. It would probably send out 5' growths again over the season. You could probably take it down to 18" above the ground and it'd be fine, but then it would be a bush again, not a tree. I think it looks quite nice as a tree, you've kept it tidy, but even better if it was flowering.

 

It will still bloom, but will take a bit longer, and wont bloom as profusely as long as its left to form a tree.

My mother in law has one in her garden that's been trained over the last nearly 40 years to be a 'standard' (if that's the term) for a standard single trunk lollipop tree. It flowers well most years.

 

i have 1 in the front garden and took it down to 5 ft or so early in the year (march-ish) its now around 12 ft and starting to flower. its got to come out when i do my front garden (along with a laurel and a lovely rose) which is a shame really as it really is nice.