Where hordes of delicate butterflies swarm around lavish flower candles, a butterfly bush decorates the summer garden. The popular ornamental tree is not only beautiful to look at and easy to care for, but also easy to propagate. These instructions explain in a practical way how to grow buddleia from a cutting.
How do you propagate a butterfly lilac?
To propagate butterfly lilac, take semi-woody, non-flowering cuttings between July and August, removing the lower leaves and halving the upper pairs of leaves. Place the cuttings in potting soil and place them in a partially shaded, warm and wind-protected location.
Cutting and preparing cuttings – How to do it right
Because propagation through cuttings is so promising, it is practiced by everyone from amateur gardeners to master gardeners. The time window for this method is in the middle of the flowering period, when life is pulsating in the butterfly bush right down to the shoot tips. A day between the beginning of July and mid-August is ideal so that the cuttings can take advantage of the summer weather for rapid rooting. This is how it works:
- Cut off half-woody, non-flowering head cuttings with a length of 10 to 15 cm
- Make the cut a short distance below a leaf node
- Remove all leaves from the bottom half
- Cut the top 2 to 3 pairs of leaves in half to reduce evaporation
If you grow young plants from a cutting, there is no need to invest in a rooting powder. The butterfly bush has a vital growth potential that makes such aids unnecessary.
Potting and caring for cuttings – This is how the roots sprout
A propagation box with a transparent lid (€15.00 on Amazon) is perfect for getting the offshoots growing. Alternatively, use 9 or 10 plastic growing pots that have several openings in the bottom for water drainage. As a substrate, we recommend lean pricking soil, which you enrich by a third with sand. Coconut fiber substrate, perlite or a mix of peat and sand are also good choices for growing cuttings. Proceed as follows:
- Lay a thin layer of expanded clay or grit on the bottom of the pot or growing tray as drainage
- Pour the growing substrate on top, leaving a pouring edge free
- Pre-drill a planting hole for each offshoot using a pricking rod
- Put the cutting two thirds into the soil and press it lightly
- Spray the substrate with water
- Set up in a partially shaded, warm and wind-protected location
In the propagation box, the lid is responsible for creating a warm, humid microclimate. For pots, you can do this by putting a plastic bag over them. Two long matches prevent contact between the hood and the cutting, which could result in rot. Until the cuttings sprout, care is limited to regular watering and ventilation. Fertilizer is not administered during this phase.
As the first leaves grow, the cover can be removed. Once the cuttings have developed a stable root system, they are planted out in a bed or a pot.
Tip
Sowing butterfly lilac seeds gives us unexpected results that are not always worth seeing. Among the multi-faceted varieties, there is of course an outstanding candidate in the form of the alternating-leaved buddleia (Buddleja alternifolia), whose seedlings thrive on a single variety and therefore have the same beautiful attributes of the mother plant.
