in my simpleton world... a plant has one goal.. to procreate ...

it achieves this by producing a flower.. to attract the bug.. to achieve fertilization ...

once it has accomplished all that.. and set seed.. its hormones will tell it to stop making those fancy flowers ...

so to confuse it.. and make it continue making flowers.. we keep cutting off the seeds.. so the plant will continue to flower ...

so .. just keep cutting off the spent flowers ...

is that simple enough ... it does not matter what flower you are asking about ... its all the same .. procreation ... and hormone confusion ...

now.. the only further question is.. how low to cut back ...

the safest.. just cut the flowers off.. and watch and see how the plant responds.. if you have more than one.. cut one low.. and one high.. live and learn thru observation ...

all that said.. and i am thinking about the orange butterfly weed .. like at the link.. your use of the common name is confusing.. i suppose you are not talking about that one... take the time to learn the latin names.. and i bet your googling will become much easier ....

i think the confusion.. came because i consider buddelia to be a flowering shrub.. and you posted in the perennial forum, making me think about the weed.. go figure ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I do deadheading 2-3 times per week because I love it. But weekly is fine for buddleia. Good description of how from terrene. Buddleia will bloom until a hard frost if you keep cutting off the dead flowers.

You didn't ask, but another important thing to know with BB's in your zone is that you don't want to trim in the fall. They don't always make it through winter and most folks agree the chances are better for their return if they aren't pruned in the fall. They are notorious for just dying after a few years, and often killed to the ground every year in colder zones. Wait until you see new growth in the spring, probably April, sometimes May. Then remove any dead branches, and shape as desired.

Easy to remember. Tax day. That is when I cut back to about a foot off the ground. I am in Zone 5 b in NW MO and did an experiment of cutiing 2 BB in the fall and used the cuttings for propagation. Both Mother plants died. BB is very hardy in my area (I have ~ 20) and I attributed the plant's death to Fall trimming/cutting back.

I also like to deadhead buddleia because it looks nicer, IMO, but my bushes do not get as large as those growing further south and it is easy to pull the branches down to clip the spent blooms to the new buds.

Before I knew not to cut back in the fall I had cut mine back for several years each fall. Then covered with a thick layer of shredded leaves. They survive and grow well when uncovered in the spring. Some are 10+ years old. So I continue to cut back in the fall. Perhaps our consistently cold frozen ground helps.

here's a you tube video on deadheading Buddleia

She cuts it back a lot faster than I do - I tend to wait until the bloom is 90-100% spent before clipping.

Good grief! Cutting off barely starting to wither blooms. I let them FINISH cause I enjoy seeing the blooms til the bloom is fully gone. I spent ~ 1 1/2 hours deadheading today. Have 15 or so bushes. Will be pottting up volunteers the next few days from my neighbor's plants.

I agree, I would wait until they are completely gone. But then she probably has many many bushes so she has an abundance of blooms. I treasure each and every blossom that I have!

On the full sized lavender blue ones, I don't deadhead at all & they continue to bloom abundantly till frost. For the shorties in mixed flower beds, usually snip the spent blooms where they attach to the stem & often get three new bloomheads from that spot. Don't know if those would continue to bloom without deadheading - suspect they would - doing it more for appearance's sake.

wow- you guys are sure making me feel l-a-z-y!

I never deadhead butter bushes - way too much other garden work to do, but the blooms do keep coming. However, as noted above, in my zone (6B), when I don't deadhead, I get a lot of volunteers, which may help in your deadhead/or not decision.

On the plus side, I'm always surprised how quickly volunteers will bloom- usually the first spring that I notice them, even when they are just a 1 foot stick, they will put out 1-2 blooms - alot of bloom for just a twig. My larger butterfly bushes will bloom all season until the first frost, with no deadheading.

A few weeks ago, I was deadheading BB and a hummingbird flew in - I froze and watched. It went to the almost spent blooms the most - not the freshest ones as I would have thought. Maybe sugars are more concentrated in the older blossoms?

Now I deadhead blossoms that are brown and dry.

In mid-September I stop. In late fall I mulch deeply and put a little plastic fence around them to hold all the leaves - have not lost a bush yet - here in 5B