Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

Chris

On Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:51:03 -0700 (PDT), Chris
wrote:

Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

Chris

They're dead, what do you think?

On Jul 20, 11:56*am, Brooklyn1 Gravesend1 wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:51:03 -0700 (PDT), Chris

wrote:
Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

Chris

They're dead, what do you think?

If I could rely on what I think, rather than asking experienced
gardeners for advice, I would not have asked. If you have experience,
please provide a suggestion (although your comment does lead me in a
certain direction, obvious answers are quite often wrong).

I'd rather rely on experience than intuition.

Thanks,

Chris

In article
,
Chris wrote:

Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

Sure, cut off all the dead and even some of the live new growth if you
want to shape the plant - Buddleias usually respond favorably to pruning
most any time of year. Also deadhead the spent blooms to encourage more.

Chris wrote:

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

i don't think it really harms anything
unless the bush is in a really windy location
(then it might thrash itself on the dead stuff
but really i think you'd have noticed that
by now)...

so my vote is for leaving it alone.


songbird

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

After flowering is a rough guideline for pruning plants, but if you decide
to do an immediate trim whenever it needs doing (or indeed whenever you
think of it), you won't do any major damage to any plant I can think of.
Don't prune now, but do an intermediate trim now :-))

On Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:46:21 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

After flowering is a rough guideline for pruning plants, but if you decide
to do an immediate trim whenever it needs doing (or indeed whenever you
think of it), you won't do any major damage to any plant I can think of.
Don't prune now, but do an intermediate trim now :-))

Removing dead parts of a plant is not pruning. Dead portions of any
plant need to be removed immediately. Pruning is the removal of live
portions of a plant (for various reasons), and for that there is an
appropriate time/method.

"Brooklyn1" Gravesend1 wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:46:21 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Hi folks

I totally neglected my butterfly bush last year. Now I have beautiful
blooms, and I look forward to a gazillion Monarchs soon (I am right on
their east coast migration path) but I also have a bunch of dead
stalks from last year. Can I prune them off now? Should I wait till
Fall? Advice needed, thanks all!

After flowering is a rough guideline for pruning plants, but if you decide
to do an immediate trim whenever it needs doing (or indeed whenever you
think of it), you won't do any major damage to any plant I can think of.
Don't prune now, but do an intermediate trim now :-))

Removing dead parts of a plant is not pruning. Dead portions of any
plant need to be removed immediately. Pruning is the removal of live
portions of a plant (for various reasons), and for that there is an
appropriate time/method.

Yawn.

I am exactly the same! I sometimes feel that I have my head in the clouds!

smuggo is a fat ugly nonce

Here here.

Hi,

There is nothing wrong in seeking advice. Generally I would advise you to remove the dead stalks, it will improve the shape and look of your buddleia. Generally speaking you should prune (cut back) your plant when it has finished flowering. If you cut it back quite hard it will encourage a bushy habit and will keep your shrub in a nice shape.
You will then be able to enjoy a mass of colour next year!!!!