I notice that honeycomb is less hardy than other buddleia.
I'm a bit wary about growing it in St. Louis.
Do butterflies seem to like it as much or less than other buddleia?

60 plants is a lot to deadhead, but I bet it is spectacular when it's in bloom.

Mike,

My Honeycomb is still blooming here in NE Okla, zone 7a. Actually all my buddleia are still green and producing some flowers, though minimal. They are fast becoming the only nectar source left.

Butterflyman, I have had good luck with Honeycomb once I found the right place. I mulch heavily. Honeycomb and Bicolor are two BF favorites.

Sandy

Wow, Mike, and I thought I have a lot of butterfly bushes. Your 60 puts my 8 buddleia to shame. That must be a fulltime job just deadheading them! Whew! I do have some volunteers that come up from seeds that I miss when deadheading. Someone had emailed me one time and warned me about them being invasive in the mid-Atlantic states, so I have to try to make sure I deadhead them. I don't know if it's so much of a problem with ones that get mowed around because they're out in the lawn, but the ones that are in beds might become a problem if I don't deadhead them...I really don't know. Right now I have a small one coming up in one of my pots where I had my swamp milkweed in this year and last year, which I reckon I'll pull out since I already have plenty. I've never tried the honeycomb one, so I can't give you my comments about that. Do you have any/many come up on their own from seeds dropping? Maybe, unlike me, you manage to find every single seed when you deadhead. ;-) I think it's great that yours have been blooming so long! I bet the butterflies have loved that! :)
Cathy

Butterflyman and Cathy,

Thanks for the empathy on my deadheading work with 60 buddleia in our one-acre butterfly sanctuary. FYI, I've added to my deadheading work by letting many of the buddleia grow 6-8 feet tall because the butterflies seem to prefer nectaring on the taller branches. I have to use a tool for pruning TREES to reach the tops of many of our buddleia. As I lapse deeper into "old geezerdom" the deadheading seems more overwhelming each year.

FYI, I've yet to discover a single buddleia that has grown from seed in my 14 years of butterfly gardening.

mike

Cathy,

I have gotten lazy in my efforts to keep my buddleias deadheaded, and as a consequence, I am finding small buddleias in my bed. However, these are easy to dig up and make nice gifts for friends who want to start a BF garden.

Sandy

Mike,

All of my Buddleias actually come from seed. Started them 5
years ago and have been growing more from seed since then. I am not meticulous at deadheading but they don't reseed in great amounts. I had one show-up next to a Hydrangea this year and it was so beautiful I'm leaving it there.

The seeds mature in the months of December and January here so I still have plenty of time to deadhead. :O)

As per the blooms, they stayed well into late October which was really nice. :O)