Buddleja davidii Butterfly Tower - Butterfly Bush

Buddleia davidii Butterfly Tower ('Tobud1305') brings something new to the world of butterfly bushes with its narrow, tightly columnar habit. This elegant shrub, adorned with slender lanceolate leaves, transforms into a flowering tower for butterflies in summer, animated by panicles of beautiful reddish-purple flowers and multicoloured wings. Cultivating this shrub poses no difficulty in ordinary soil, even poor and occasionally dry soil, and its reduced width development is suitable for gardens of all sizes. Majestic buddleias often take centre stage in large shrub borders and flowering hedges, and rightly so.

Buddleia davidii Butterfly Tower is a deciduous shrub, which often loses its leaves in winter. It belongs to the Scrophulariaceae (buddlejaceae) family. This amazing British cultivar, recently obtained by Thompson & Morgan, is derived, among others, from Buddleia davidii, also known as Father David's Buddleia or Changing Buddleia. The latter is a robust Chinese species that has become invasive under our climates. Butterfly Tower is a sterile hybrid, which does not self-seed in the garden or in nature.

The shrub has a narrow, dense habit, supported by short and barely arched branches. It will reach an average height of 2 m (7 ft) with a spread of 1 m (3 ft) in 7 or 8 years, depending on growing conditions. It flowers from July to early September, producing an abundance of panicles of flowers measuring 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 in) long. The flowers are reddish-purple in colour. They release a sweet scent that is highly attractive to pollinating insects. Its ornamental foliage is composed of slender, rather small leaves with a deep green colour, and the undersides are covered in a greyish fuzz. This very hardy shrub is resistant to urban pollution and does not suffer from occasional dryness in deep soil.

Whether planted individually or in groups, in a hedge, at the corner of a terrace, or at the back of a perennial border, Buddleia davidii Butterfly Tower will enhance the garden in a unique way. Its richly coloured inflorescences, animated by a constant flight of multicoloured butterflies, are a spectacle in themselves. They also complement the blue flowers of Ceanothus 'Gloire de Versailles', for example, or the mauve and white panicles of some summer lilacs. You can also plant it in a mixed hedge, with botanical roses, serviceberries, hawthorns, Japanese quinces, abelias, and forsythias to extend the flowering season. It adapts well to coastal areas and can be grown in containers on a terrace. Its fragrant flowers are also very attractive in bouquets. You can pair this buddleia with tall grasses (Miscanthus, Panicum, Deschampsia) for an elegant contrast.