State is asking that these not be planted anymore.

Hi Grant,

Buddleia davidii, the common butterfly bush, has become quite problematic as it seeds around vigorously and pops up in places where it's becomes extremely difficult to eradicate.

With many existing plants in people's gardens and the press they get as butterfly magnets, it's tough to convince people not to plant these.

However, not all butterfly bushes have been listed as invasive. Species such as the really cool B. globosa has yet to exhibit invasiveness. I would seek these out and give then a try as most will have the same appealing growth habit and flower power.

While we're not sure if you truly have B. davidii, Buddleias root very easily from stem cuttings (could be another issue as B. davidii can also sucker and layer easily). Just be sure you really REALLY want it in your garden and will be ready to tear it and it's seedlings out should it get out of control.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the replies--I really appreciate it. The plant I covet is definitely B. davidii, so I'll have to think about this......but thanks for the replies. I'm familiar with most of the species, so will think about going with them instead. We'll see...thanks!

Happy gardening,
Grant

Is the state asking nurseries not to sell these any more? Seems every nursery I've been to has them for sale.

Thanks,
Grant

It is easy to root butterfly bushes. Just stick pencil size cuttings into a damp north side bed, or into a well watered pot with some bottom heat. They will root.

Don't listen to the ignorant people who think that butterfly bushes will take over the world. I have been growing them since the late 1970's. In December 1983, we had single digit temperatures for several weeks and below freezing temperatures from December first until the thirty first. All my Buddleia died and the ones I know of growing in abandoned places died. They wouldn't spread like Scottbroom has, our winters wouldn't let them. I also like Scottbroom. I grow both of them in my garden because there isn't another plant with the bright flowers these plants have that I can grow. Don't let the ignorant people from the weed boards tell you there are other plants that can replace the butterfly bush. There just isn't any bush with the fragrance, range of color, or timing of bloom that can match the butterfly bush in the Northwest.
The butterfly bush and Scottbroom are what ecologist call pioneer species. These are plants that quickly colonize disturbed areas. But like native pioneer species they are quickly replaced by serial secessions of plant communities through to the climax plant community. I have yet to fine either the butterfly bush or scottbroom in heathy native forest. Yes, I have seen them along logging roads, but then logging roads are disturbed areas colonized by pioneer species.

I manage a six acre public area where I am constantly fighting our native weeds; willows, cottonwood, douglas fir, hemlock, lodgepole pines. If I let them go, it would look like the dog hair on an abandoned logging site. The few butterfly bushes and scottbroom I get, I cherish. They add color to the grey, rainy, dreary Northwest landscape that most plants can't match.

Hello!

Buddleia davidii is a Class B weed in Oregon and was classified as Class C for Washington State just last year. Just being classified is a pretty big deal and gardeners must be aware of this!

Nurserymen are attempting to find and develop less invasive alternatives, but until then, they continue to offer davidii to satisfy the market of gardeners who are continually being encouraged to plant it.

If you understand the biology and reproductive capability of this plant, you'll immediately see how this plant can become a problem. Not only does it vegetatively propagate itself easily, it is notorious for seeding into places where it is not welcomed (riparians areas, corridors, edge of wetlands, etc.). With the mild Pacific Northwest climate we have, winter freezes will NOT kill this plant. At best, the entire plant can die down, but it quickly resprouts come spring.

There are MANY alternatives to Buddleia davidii. As I mentioned before, there are other Buddleia species that have not shown invasive potential, but are equally beneficial to inviting butterflies into the landscape.

Butterfly bush is a lovely shrub with many fine qualities for the landscape, but its adaptability to disturbed sites restricts native plant species from growing, thus affecting the ecological processes in which other native species rely on.

Buddleia are not yet a problem in native forests, but with disturbed lands being more prevalent, it creates a perfect substrate for such invasives to really take over. In some areas, the cost of eradicating them is tremendous!

The key now is awareness, prevention, and responsible gardening practices before things get out of control!

Anyone who says that our winters are too mild to kill butterfly bush haven't lived here long enough to really know what our winters are like. The 1983 freeze killed all the butterfly bushes and they didn't come back from their roots, not in my area at least. I waited until mid summer to see if they would, which they didn't, so I had to buy new ones. Yes, most of our winters are mild, but we do get some real cold winters from time to time, 1983 being one. In the early 1960's I was living in Montesano, Washington, on the coast and I saw -6º F temperatures. There have been winters in between that have been almost as cold. These would kill B. davidii. Several winters ago, a friend of mine living in Walla Walla, Washington lost her B. davidii to a couple of nights of -5º F. They didn't come back from their roots either.

As I said before, there isn't a shrub that can match the fragrance, range of color, and timing of bloom of B. davidii. There are other species of Buddleia that are attractive, but they lack one or more of the qualities of B. davidii. B. davidii are like a late blooming lilac, except they are more fragrant to my nose than lilacs.

Speaking of lilacs, in some areas of the Northwest they re-seed and spread out into so called wild areas. I can't wait for the paranoid, frighten, little mice on the weed boards, who are controlled by the herbicide chemical companies to put lilacs on the weed list. Also sweet cherries have spread into our forest, which is real obvious in the spring when they are in bloom. They are as thick in the woods as butterfly bushes are along streams. Are the weed boards going to tell farmers they can't grow sweet cherries anymore because of that. It wouldn't surprise me!

I've had B. davidii come back from the roots after -15 F in USDA zone 4....hmmmm. B. davidii is rampant along the Skykomish river here, forests aren't the problem areas so far, riparian areas are.

Good discussion! Issafish, thanks for providing the technique. If I take the plunge, I'll know how to do it now. Drop me an email? grant_in_seattle@yahoo.com

Riz, thanks for the updated information on weed status etc. I wonder if the state will start banning nursery sale?

Thanks again,
Grant

There is a voluntary effort underway as we speak. We will not sell it where I work!

Sweet cherry has been naturalized in western Washington (and adjacent regions) long enough to have become widespread, in fact it crosses with bitter cherry to produce the locally not uncommon sterile hybrid Puget cherry. Butterfly bush, on the other hand, appears to have started popping up in quantity comparatively recently. Some weed board designations are attempts at preemptive strikes.

Scattered, often solitary Pampas grass seedlings are rather common in Seattle now as well, road verges seeming to be a favored habitat. I have also seen a mass of it clustered where an urban creates enters a culvert to go under a street between it and the Sound. Apparently recent mild winters are allowing seedlings to survive.

Invasiveness of various plant species is a serious concern and not an issue to be taken (or treated) lightly. I am getting really fed up with folks that deny the problem exists simply because they have not experienced it personally or even more inanely, deem it to be some sort of "plant police" conspiracy. The topic of locally invasive plants is one of the seminars offered at this year's Farwest show, a huge regional trade show for the nursery industry. Nursery owners and growers DO take this issue seriously.

Buddleia IS becoming a serious problem in this area and while it is not yet on the "do not plant" listing, more and more responsible nurseries are deleting it from their inventory. It will no longer be offered at Emery's after this season. For the same reason, you will no longer find a lot of nurseries that offer English holly (Ilex aquifolium), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) except for a few named forms or hybrids, or mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia). While these have not made the state or King county's Noxious Weed list, they are showing an increasing incidence of invasiveness in natural areas.

FWIW, I no longer offer Euphorbia myrsinities, Iris pseudacorus or Verbena bonariensis at the nursery (despite the fact that it is all over various display beds, a situation we are attempting to remedy), and also have not carried Linaria purpurea, Lychnis coronaria and Centranthus ruber for several years because of their weedy, rampantly reseeding habits. I am trying to bring myself to to the point of no longer offering Euphorbia characias var. wulfenii because of its propensity to reseed so freely as well, ditto Nassella tenuissima. And the exportation of Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron' (aka 'Rubra') from California and Oregon is already restricted.

As gardeners - so-called stewards of the earth - your knowledge of any plant's invasive potential and its impact on the local environment is important and a responsible attitude towards plant selection is a duty, not a choice. In an area where we are not the slightest bit limited by the huge range of plants we can select from, there is absolutely no reason to choose those which are or have the potential to be problematic.

>I am getting really fed up with folks that deny the problem exists simply because they have not experienced it personally or even more inanely, deem it to be some sort of "plant police" conspiracy.That pretty much hits the nail on the head, I am glad somebody came out with it here. Holly (Ilex aquifolium) and mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) are already common, even pervasive--particularly the former.

The nursery that was bought and became Emery's Garden came with spontaneous mountain ash trees growing on old tree stumps. When I was enrolled in the Edmonds Community College hort. program in the 1970s one of the instructors claimed there was a Scotsman who settled near Bellingham Bay a very long time ago and planted Sorbus aucuparia, which has since spread out from there throughout the region. (Jacobson, NORTH AMERICAN LANDSCAPE TREES says "Imported to Williamsburg, VA

At one point B. davidii was taking over the banks of the lower Dosewallips River on the Olympic Peninsula - I haven't been back lately to see if they are still there (now that I think about it that was 8 years ago.... wow) but that sort of situation certainly seems problematic.

I just get disappointed when 'blanket rules' are developed that are broader than necessary. For example I wouldn't be surprised to see a law banning all Buddleja or all Hedera species sometime in the future. Or (even more stupid)... all eucalyptus. It's true that some plants have shown more invasive potental in relatively recent times, but let's remember that the introduced plants with truly invasive potential tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

And as for Euphorbia myrsinites, for a long time I could hardly keep it alive in Olympia - it is too wet! Fuchsia magellanica and Zantedeschia aethopica, on the other hand, reseed profusely.

The euphorbia would probably be a preemptive strike, I think based on experience in some dry areas elsewhere that may not relate to western WA--but I haven't paid any attention for awhile. Likewise Centaurea macrocephala, recently verboten over here because on one site in Whitman (?) County it took off and become a pretty large wild population. The thing is, once whatever limiting factor (insufficient numbers? cold winters?) has kept a plant under the radar is no longer limiting alot of them can appear over a large area pretty quickly.

Re: the Euphorbia myrsinities: I once had a consultation at a property here in Shoreline that had a neglected sunny front garden that was literally covered with hundreds of these plants, all self-seeded from a single individual. Was not something I had ever witnessed before and it was rather startling. So wet winters aside, it can be a problem if sited in a favorable location. I've since culled a number of seedlings from my plant that I removed several years ago. Personally, I have never found most common euphorbias to find our weather not to their liking.

FWIW, that same garden also had extensive, untended plantings of St. John's wort, English ivy and the hair grass - a poster child for local potentially invasive or problematic species!!

GardenGal, well that's interesting. I've seen it (E. myrsinites) naturalize in Pullman. My parents' place near Olympia receives about 65" of rain annually.... with that amount you start to see differences in how some plants perform compared to Seattle. (The official 50" figure is misleading since the Olympia airport is rainshadowed by the Black Hills.)

E. mellifera has seeded itself a little bit in my garden. E. amygdaloides of course has taken over a large area. I don't have E. wulfenii.

Quite a few spurges are reproducing here, to varying extent. Jacobson, WILD PLANTS OF GREATER SEATTLE:

Euphorbia characias ssp. veneta (E. wulfenii) "reseeds, often weedily"
E. cyparissus "escapes"
E. dulcis 'Chameleon' "escapes"
E. glyptosperma is "naturalized in sunny dry sites; rare"
E. lathyris (E. lathyrus) "reseeds"
E. maculata (E. or Chamaesyce supina) is "naturalized in sunny dry sites; uncommon"
E. oblongata is "naturalized; very rare"
E. peplus is "naturalized; common"
E. platyphyllus "reseeds" but is "very rare"
E. (Chamaesyce) serpyllifolia is "naturalized in at least one sunny dry site in Renton"
E. serrulata (E. stricta L., nom. illeg.) has been "naturalized since 1998 at the U.W. and elsewhere"