On 07/03/2020 16:02, Jenny M Benson wrote:
I looked on the internet for advice about pruning buddleia because I
thought a family member had not pruned hers hard enough - she had left
one main stem about 3' high and thinner stems abhout 1'-2'.Â* I said I
*thought* she should take all stems back to the lowest new sprouting and
she said there hadn't been any when she pruned, but there is now.

However, this is what I read at the first site to come up:

"...cut all of the branches back to the ground in early spring ..." then
"...stems should be at least a foot tall.Â* Stop pruning once your stems
are about a foot in length..."

Unless there is a crucial difference between a "stem" and a "branch"
this seems to be totally contradictory, but what, then, is the
difference?Â* If a "piece of growth" is cut back to the ground where is
there a stem which is to be left at a foot long?

Please can someone yay or nay to cutting all the existing "lengths of
wood" back to the lowest buds.

It doesn't really matter what you do. They are almost impossible to kill
no matter how aggressively you prune them or what tools you use. You
might lose some flowers by pruning too late but they are prolific.

The local nursery cuts theirs off at ground level with a chainsaw and
they still grow back to large healthy bushes in a single season.

It matters more with things where you are growing them for their
ornamental winter stems in which case removing the oldest third and any
crossing branches is a reasonable working scheme.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown