The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow spotted
and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One big
old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to the
ground again?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Jenny

I have the same situation with my large butterfly bush. It usually grows
beautifully, but it looks like its almost dead.

My guess is that it started to flush out new growth and we got some intense
heat and dry weather for quite some time. New growth is very tender and may
be burned by high temps and dry weather. I don't see any reason why it
can't be cut back to start new growth. Hopefully, we'll get some more
serious rain to help out with this situation.

Good luck.

Penny
"Raleighgirl" wrote in message
news
The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow spotted
and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One big
old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to the
ground again?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Jenny

The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow spotted
and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One big
old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to the
ground again?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Jenny

Please keep us posted. This sounds like my "mystery killer". I had
2 healthy, big, beautiful butterfly bushes for about 3 years and then
the same as you describe happened. I sprayed them with Raid, and that
seemed to allow new, "clean" leaves to appear. The next year they
were worse, and then the next year, NOTHING would clear up the problem
and the bushes completely died.
This disease or bug hits a LOT of things on my land, both native, and
things I plant.
I would also just love to know what the cause is and how to treat it.
Hits my veggies, too... especially beans.
Kira

When we bought our butterfly bush from Redmill Nursery in Durham last year,
the guy there told us that these bushes should be pruned on a 5-year cycle
in the Fall. The first year, prune them back to the first division of the
branches; the second year, to the second division, and so on up to four
years. In the fifth year, prune them back down to the first node again. I
don't know what happens if you don't do this, but he was pretty insistent
that it be done this way.

Ours got yellow and had holes in the leaves earlier (two weeks ago) and we
sprayed it with insecticide (something general). It seems to have recovered
enough to put out new growth and is now near to blooming.

-Jenny

When I had my bushes, for about 4 years, I pruned them back every year
to about 6" tall, since the celery-like stalks all died in the frost.
They came back just fine every year, very thick, to about 7' tall....
UNTIL the killer struck.
Kira

On Mon, 31 May 2004 20:54:01 GMT, "Jennifer Richards"
wrote:

When we bought our butterfly bush from Redmill Nursery in Durham last year,
the guy there told us that these bushes should be pruned on a 5-year cycle
in the Fall. The first year, prune them back to the first division of the
branches; the second year, to the second division, and so on up to four
years. In the fifth year, prune them back down to the first node again. I
don't know what happens if you don't do this, but he was pretty insistent
that it be done this way.

Ours got yellow and had holes in the leaves earlier (two weeks ago) and we
sprayed it with insecticide (something general). It seems to have recovered
enough to put out new growth and is now near to blooming.

-Jenny

Sounds like lacking of Nitragen, may be too much sun as well?

On Sun, 30 May 2004, Raleighgirl wrote:

The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow spotted
and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One big
old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to the
ground again?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Jenny

They grow, and have grown for years, in full sun so it's not
that. It may be like Penny said, that the sun was so bright and
hot right after I'd cut them back. I don't know about lack of
nitrogen... can you tell me more?
Thanks,
Jenny


"Ke Wei" wrote in message
pub.duke.edu...
| Sounds like lacking of Nitragen, may be too much sun as well?
|
| On Sun, 30 May 2004, Raleighgirl wrote:
|
| The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow
spotted
| and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One
big
| old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to
the
| ground again?
| Thanks for any and all advice.
| Jenny
|
|
|

I've read that spider mites can be a serious problem and they are VERY
hard to detect because they are so tiny. You might want to spray for
them just in case. You will need to spray on a regular schedule for a
while to be sure they are eliminated. I had them on a potted citrus and
they almost killed it before I saw them.

Raleighgirl wrote:
The leaves on several of my butterfly bushes are yellow spotted
and shriveling. Is this a disease or an insect problem? One big
old bush is almost ready to croak. Should I cut it back to the
ground again?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Jenny