Gardening & Horticulture
Butterfly Bush (Buddleia daviddi)
Beautiful Garden Ornamental or Noxious Invader?
by Nelle Murray, Coordinator • Asotin County Noxious Weed Board
An easy-to-grow, robust, fast-growing bush is a natural addition to any garden. A plant that can be easily transplanted, be grown from seeds or from cuttings, and additionally attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, delights all of the valley’s gardeners. The problem with any plant that has these characteristics (except that of attracting butterflies and hummingbirds) is that these same features that make it an easy addition to our gardens can also mean that it may be an aggressive invader into our natural communities. This is the case with butterfly bush.
Oregon and Washington both added it to their noxious weed lists for 2005. The west sides of both states have seen this plant invade riparian and forested areas seriously out-competing native vegetation. Butterfly bush can adapt to a wide variety of soil types, sun exposures, and pH. It is tolerant of heat, drought, and high humidity. The escaped plant has been found from floodplains to mountain slopes.
What about Asotin County? Do you need to nuke your beautiful bush? No. Although the Asotin Weed Board is concerned about the potential of any aggressive nonnative plant, we are encouraging gardeners to practice “safe gardening”. This means dead-heading your flowers and not letting them go to seed. Don’t leave your clippings on the ground since they can easily take root and create new plants. Most importantly, don’t dump your clippings along stream banks!
Surveys in Asotin County have not located any escaped plants to date. Keep up the good work! Protect our natural areas! Garden wisely!
Heading using the h3tag
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