Planted a nice size (about 4' tall), vibrant Butterfly Bush about 6 weeks
ago. It did well, bloomed, made new blooms. The this past week, it just
crashed and died. Leaves wilted and then it just croaked. I am in South
Louisiana. Zone 10. Everything else in that flowerbed is doing fine and
growing strong.
Wonder what happened. We had a lot of rain but then the last two weeks have
been really hot and dry. The Butterfly Bush was on the east side of the
house.

Perry

"Perry Templeton" wrote in message
...
Planted a nice size (about 4' tall), vibrant Butterfly Bush about 6 weeks
ago. It did well, bloomed, made new blooms. The this past week, it just
crashed and died. Leaves wilted and then it just croaked. I am in South
Louisiana. Zone 10. Everything else in that flowerbed is doing fine and
growing strong.
Wonder what happened. We had a lot of rain but then the last two weeks
have
been really hot and dry. The Butterfly Bush was on the east side of the
house.

Perry



I am not an expert on these, but mine were struggling in full sun, moved
them to partial shade and they are taking over. Maybe too much sun?

Usually planting of any shrub in the deep south is discouraged exactly for
what you described. Two weeks of really hot dry weather with no rain and no
irrigation is enough to do in a shrub that hasn't stuck its roots into every
crack and crevice around. I had a number of ornamentals die on me when I
lived in north Florida which I planted in late spring (like April). Even
with hand watering many of them could not make it through a hot dry May
until the rains came in June. I finally learned that with any kind of tree
or shrub, November or December planting seemed to be best in the deep south.
Even so, a really droughty summer could kill off something that appeared to
be established.
"Perry Templeton" wrote in message
...
Planted a nice size (about 4' tall), vibrant Butterfly Bush about 6 weeks
ago. It did well, bloomed, made new blooms. The this past week, it just
crashed and died. Leaves wilted and then it just croaked. I am in South
Louisiana. Zone 10. Everything else in that flowerbed is doing fine and
growing strong.
Wonder what happened. We had a lot of rain but then the last two weeks
have
been really hot and dry. The Butterfly Bush was on the east side of the
house.

Perry

Perry Templeton wrote:

Planted a nice size (about 4' tall), vibrant Butterfly Bush about 6 weeks
ago. It did well, bloomed, made new blooms. The this past week, it just
crashed and died. Leaves wilted and then it just croaked. I am in South
Louisiana. Zone 10. Everything else in that flowerbed is doing fine and
growing strong.
Wonder what happened. We had a lot of rain but then the last two weeks have
been really hot and dry. The Butterfly Bush was on the east side of the
house.


Did you water it? Anything planted in Zone 10 will need a
good soaking at least once a week for a year or more. In full
sun in a dry period, twice a week would probably be better.

It takes a while for plants to get established, especially
under harsh conditions. Until then, they are fragile.


Mike Prager
Beaufort, NC (on the coast in zone 8a)
(Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)

"chaz" wrote in message
link.net...

"Perry Templeton" wrote in message
...
Planted a nice size (about 4' tall), vibrant Butterfly Bush about 6
weeks
ago. It did well, bloomed, made new blooms. The this past week, it
just
crashed and died. Leaves wilted and then it just croaked. I am in
South
Louisiana. Zone 10. Everything else in that flowerbed is doing fine
and
growing strong.
Wonder what happened. We had a lot of rain but then the last two weeks
have
been really hot and dry. The Butterfly Bush was on the east side of the
house.

Perry



I am not an expert on these, but mine were struggling in full sun, moved
them to partial shade and they are taking over. Maybe too much sun?




Taken over? I just bought a house with a gorgeous butterfly bush out front.
Sometimes I like plants that spread/take over, but not sure about this one
yet. Do they tend to get invasive if not disciplined?

It may have died from too little water, but I'd keep watering anyway.

I have a couple that I cut down every year in very early Spring so they grow as
bushes (and third one trained as a small tree).

Last year I cut perhaps a bit early and one of them seemed to die - Spring came
and nothing on that one. A month or two later, it miraculously came back and is
now almost as high as the other one. Could have sworn it was dead - upper wood
shot, bark slimy...but something was still going on underground.

After all, they really do have the vitality to warrant the description of
'large weed'.

Good luck.

I am not an expert on these, but mine were struggling in full sun, moved
them to partial shade and they are taking over. Maybe too much sun?


Mine have always done well in full sun with enough water.

I though "Butterfly Bush" was a character in "Went with the Wind"!!!

"Miss Scarlet, I don't know nuthin' 'bout runnin' no country!!!!"

Doug Kanter wrote:

Taken over? I just bought a house with a gorgeous butterfly bush out front.
Sometimes I like plants that spread/take over, but not sure about this one
yet. Do they tend to get invasive if not disciplined?

I haven't see them do that.


Mike Prager
Beaufort, NC (on the coast in zone 8a)
(Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)

Doug Kanter wrote:

Taken over? I just bought a house with a gorgeous butterfly bush out front.
Sometimes I like plants that spread/take over, but not sure about this one
yet. Do they tend to get invasive if not disciplined?

We live in an area with hard frosts (zone 6) and butterfly bushes
frequently die to the ground but come back each year except this year.
This year many didn't come back. We had an unusually long winter, not
especially cold, but very long. We have not had a problem with the
plants spreading. We have to take cuttings to propagate them.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

On 8/13/04 5:20 PM, in article
, "Stephen M. Henning"
wrote:

Doug Kanter wrote:

Taken over? I just bought a house with a gorgeous butterfly bush out front.
Sometimes I like plants that spread/take over, but not sure about this one
yet. Do they tend to get invasive if not disciplined?

We live in an area with hard frosts (zone 6) and butterfly bushes
frequently die to the ground but come back each year except this year.
This year many didn't come back. We had an unusually long winter, not
especially cold, but very long. We have not had a problem with the
plants spreading. We have to take cuttings to propagate them.

This past winter I lost one and had one die back to a quarter of the last
year's size. But the one I really expected to lose, the Honeycombs is back
and bigger than ever. So go figure.

Cheryl