Butterfly bush: Perfumed, prolific buddleja happily plays nice with other garden performers

摘要

Buddlejas have always been an easy sell: What's not to like about a shrub that may be large or small, that produces fragrant blooms in a rainbow of colours for months on end, and that attracts heaps of butterflies and hummingbirds? In fact, the only downside to this superb shrub is that it isn't hardy in much of Canada, and when it does find conditions to its liking, it's prone to producing rather more offspring than is polite. Fortunately for gardeners in colder zones, over the past three or four years there has been a proliferation of compact cultivars great for small gardens and particularly well suited to containers. Whether they're planted in beds or in pots, buddlejas make terrific "temp-perennials," given their long season of bloom and fuss-free attitude.