Common Name: butterfly bush
Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Zone: 6 to 9
Height: 4.00 to 5.00 feet
Spread: 4.00 to 5.00 feet
Bloom Time: August to October
Bloom Description: Lilac blue
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Flower: Showy, Fragrant, Good Cut
Attracts: Butterflies
Tolerate: Clay Soil
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun. Becomes weedy and sparse with diminished flowering performance if not grown in full sun. Does poorly in wet, poorly draining conditions. Will adapt to clay soil if properly amended. In USDA Zones 5 and 6, this plant will often die to the ground in winter and therefore is often grown as a herbaceous perennial. Even if plants do not die to the ground in winter, they usually grow more vigorously, produce superior flowers and maintain a better shape if cut close to the ground in late winter each year. Removal of spent flower spikes during the growing season may encourage additional bloom.
'Loch' is one of the least winter hardy of the buddlejas, and is only recommended for growing in USDA Zones 6-9.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Buddleja is a genus of about 100 species of mainly shrubs but also some trees and climbers. They are native to Asia, Africa and North and South America. Commonly called butterfly bush, they are very attractive to butterflies and other pollinators.
Genus name honors the Reverend Adam Buddle (1660-1715), English botanist and vicar of Farmbridge in Essex.
The genus name is frequently listed today as Buddleia. However, Linnaeus named the genus Buddleja (pronounced with a silent “j”) which is still considered to be the proper spelling (first name survives) according to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
Common name refers to its attractiveness to butterflies.
'Lochinch' is a hybrid (B. davidii x B. fallowiana) butterfly bush cultivar which typically grows 3-5' tall in one season with an arching, mounded habit. Features spectacular, spike-like, terminal clusters (8-12" long) of extremely fragrant lilac-blue flowers with orange eyes. Flowers typically bloom from mid-late July to frost (starting later than the B. davidii cultivars). Lance-shaped leaves (to 10" long) are gray-green above and woolly white below. A fast-growing plant which will grow much taller in the deep South (to 10-15') where the top growth does not die to the ground in winter. Flowers are, as the common name suggests, very attractive to butterflies. Popular fresh cut flower. This plant was introduced by the Earl of Stair in Lochinch, Scotland. A Royal Horticutural Society of Great Britain Award of Garden Merit plant (1993).
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Nematodes can be troublesome in the southern United States. Rabbits tend to avoid this plant. This plant can spread readily by seed and is considered invasive in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and certain parts of the United States and Canada. Check local laws and invasive plant resources before adding this plant to your landscape.
Uses
Provides attractive summer to early fall flowers when few other shrubs are in bloom. Grow in borders, cottage gardens, rose gardens or butterfly gardens. Popular fresh cut flower.
Usually does not make a good single specimen shrub.