I have my butterfly bush on the south-west corner of the house. It gets full sun all day. This will be the second year for it in my garden, but only the fist in this location. I just plopped in a corner of the vegetable garden last year to get it in the ground and moved it this spring. It was burned badly by the hard freeze we had here in Indiana, and has just now come out of it. It looks great...has lots of new growth...I will have to keep it watered, I think, it looks like another dry hot summer for us in Indiana this year.

We'll have to wait and see if it likes its new location...

Matthew
Indiana.Matt

Mine I put in a front garden last year, just to get it in the ground. I thought it was languishing, but all of a sudden it put on a bunch of new growth, and is starting to bloom now.

The garden is on the northeast side of the house, and gets part shade.

I presently have them in the garden, but did not realize how huge they can get. I plan to move them in October. Wow...! They can get quite large!

Bakemom, which colors did you sow? I sowed red this year?

I've got them all over the place. Didn't winter sow any of them however. Purchased one (the reg. violet purple) and got two seedlings from a friend who had them show up in her yard about 5 years ago (one more pinkish magenta, the other the reg. violet purple). These three are in the back yard, two full sun, one part sun and all do fine. In cleaning up this spring I am finding babies all over the place. At least 4 that must have been under a foot tall seedlings last year and I missed them in my jungle and are now ready to dig up, pot up and give away. All the volunteers have showed up in full sun if that helps.

For the front, I had purchsed a small yellow/orange center (Honeysuckle? I forget the name) BB. It was godzilla in the full sun center bed - 8' tall and wide in a season or two. I hacked it down to a manageable size and moved it to an afternoon sun only bed, it stays more managable there.

So just from my experience, they do OK without full tilt full sun. If you want to keep it a smaller size (under 6') you might want to go for that right from the beginning.

I had two Buddleia bushes near to my lilacs in a north facing area near the west fence. They got quite a bit of full sun in the morning, but none if the afteroon. They bloomed beautifully, but have not come back this year after being there for about 3 years. I have been told that they are short-lived this far north, so I'll be on the lookout for more seeds this year. They were very easily winter sown and bloomed the second year. They attracted such a variety of butterflies, I will miss them this year and possibly next.

I purchased my 1st couple and I haven't had to buy any since because I'm always getting volunteers in my yard somewhere. I brought up at least 4 or 5 to my new home in Indy. I kept 2 & gave the others away. If they like where they're planted you'll get plenty of extras every year so be looking for some friends that want butterfly bushes. Oh and when you do get those volunteers you're likely to get some really neat new colors. I have a violet that's just beautiful and I've never seen anything close to this color at the stores so be on the look out. :)

I WS'd a gallon jug full in 2010 and planted them out in the holding area which is a corner of my veggie garden. I had just planted them very tightly together and now they look like one super huge bush. I live in a zone where I believe they will die down every year. I dug one up and gave it to my uncle but don't know where I want the other two dozen or so, so I'll just leave them there for now.