Buddleja Flutterby Peace - Butterfly Bush

Buddleia Flutterby Peace ('Podaras 6') is a variety from the Flutterby Series that presents butterfly bushes with particularly compact dimensions. They are sterile or very infertile and therefore exceptionally floriferous. This variety forms a small ramified bush of 1.5 m (5 ft) in all directions, with a spreading bushy habit and dark green foliage that works wonders in pots or borders of flower beds. This hybrid produces pale violet to mauve flowers in terminal and axillary panicles several centimetres long. They are quite fragrant and nectar-rich. It blooms from May to November without exhausting itself with seed formation. It is a very easy plant to grow in all well-drained soils in sunny locations and tolerates summer drought once established.

Buddleia Flutterby Peace is a hybrid cultivar from an American series of butterfly bushes with reduced growth and sterility, which allows for intense flowering from late spring to winter frosts. This variety stands out for its even more impressive floribundance and dark green foliage that contrasts beautifully with its light-coloured flowers. It is a small-sized variety with a dense spreading bushy habit. Belonging to the Scrophulariaceae (buddlejaceae) family, this bush is the result of a crossbreeding between Buddleia alternifolia and Buddleia davidii, also known as Father David's Buddleia.

Flutterby Peace will reach its maximum adult size of 1.5 m (5 ft) in all directions within 3 or 4 years. It produces numerous branches adorned with dark green leaves with a whitish underside. The leaves, about 5.5 cm (2 in) long and 1.5 cm (1 in) wide, are pointed and elliptical in shape. This deciduous foliage is absent in winter, except in mild climates. This variety can flower from May to November if the weather is mild. The flower panicles appear at the ends of axillary and terminal stems and are quite small, reaching about 6 cm (2.5 in) long and 3.5 cm (2 in) wide. These flowers are pale violet to mauve-pink with a small orange eye and release a sweet fragrance reminiscent of honey, highly sought after by pollinating insects. The flowers contain substances collected by pollinating insects that will transform them into honey. This very hardy bush is highly resistant to urban pollution and does not suffer from occasional drought in deep soil. When grown in pots, it will require frequent watering and regular fertilisation.

Whether planted individually or in groups, at the corner of the house, on a dry slope, or in a flower border, Buddleia Flutterby Peace will bring the garden to life throughout the summer and into early autumn. Its long-lasting intense violet summer flowering blends perfectly with other shrubs and perennials in the bed with pink, mauve, violet, and white flowers (phlox, echinaceas), and with grey and silver foliage of artemisias, salvias, and stachys. Its flowering offers strong contrasts with the golden foliage of choisya and the yellow flowers of Hypericum. This moderately growing variety is also suitable for container cultivation in smaller gardens but is even more beautiful in a free hedge with weigelas, other buddleias, or to bring a more informal structure to a strict and colourless corner of the garden. It adapts well to coastal areas and thrives in any good well-drained garden soil. Its pleasantly scented flowers are also very pretty in bouquets.