Advice regarding my buddleia

[RumNotRun]

I have a buddleia growing in the front yard of my house. I like it, especially in the summer when I can watch the butterflies and bees fly around it. I was told I should prune it so that it grows nicely and is less straggly, but I don't know anything about plants and pruning so I was hoping one of you would be able to advise where to cut please?

Also is it possible to plant the cuttings and get a new buddleia? Are they ok to grow near a tree sapling?

Thanks

You can prune it quite hard. Slightly depends on the size and branches but I cut mine back to about a third of its original height. Sorry, I haven't tried to take cuttings so not sure on that one.

Sorry, forgot a photo. The red arrow points to the base.

I cut mine back hard about this time every year. They soon bounce back. I'd cut to the top of the red triangle on your 2nd photo. Lots of new bushy growth will start appearing really quickly.

I'm a rubbish gardener - and I hope someone better will come along, but I would say that it appears to be very difficult to actually kill a buddleia.

We have several in the garden, all self seeded I think from birds and my DH periodically (most years) hacks them right back and it does them a lot of good. They flourish much better. I think he just cuts back all the branches and leaves them about 3ft high and the next year they are blooming lovely.

Cross posted with better gardeners than me!

What time of year to prune them?

my neighbour cuts hers almost to the ground this time of year.
it grows quickly and flowers abundantly each summer.

I've got my eye on a Black Knight which looks like a dark mauve shade of flower . I need to fill a space where the fence (not my fence) is lower than I;d like .

Hard prune in March I would.

Pile up the cuttings & offer as kindling; it burns very nicely.

It self-seeds like crazy, you won't have anything else in your garden soon.

I cut mine to 6 inches every year. The official way is to deadhead after flowering, then back to just above base now. Make your cut just above a strong bud.

Allegedly, they can be propagated from cuttings in late summer.

Amazing, thank you all for the advice! Now I just need to wait for payday to get some shears/secateurs.

Late to the thread but....
We have one that can grow very tall. It lost a chunk from the base in a very windy storm that rocked it all.
We cut it right back at this time of year and I continue to keep it cut back until the shoots show the developing flower buds.
This keeps is compact and far less 'leggy' but best of all it flowers more at eye-level so you can enjoy the lovely bees and butterflies up close, rather than them being way up above your head.

I take a saw to mine! You can prune them to about a foot off the ground and this is the time to do it.

I have a Black Knight and prune it at the end of March by 2/3rds

I hack mine back in November and take off around 80%. I originally did it in November because we were having work done and it was in the way. It flowered even better than ever the following summer so I always prune them in late autumn/early winter now.

I have one in my garden which I grew from cuttings taken while out on a walk in summer, 2 and a bit years ago. It's now as tall as my fence and due its first hard prune.

I’m laughing at the idea of cuttings slightly, as said above they self seed all over the place. DH got an old bit of wood with seed stuck under his car once and before long there were plants in his work car park.

Unfortunately the current buddleia is in the front yard but I want one in the back garden too so I think I need to help the seeds to get there 🙂

You can take cuttings a d dip in rooting powder then pot up. Might be too late though. Prune really hard to avoid it being woody.

That's very interesting, can you give a bit more detail on how you do that please?

I've got one that easily exceeds 15ft each year. It was very neglected when we moved in and I cut it back to about 4 ft each year as that's the limit of what I can cut through - anything below that is about as thick as my arm and just too much for me.

I thought if I pruned later it would make it flower very late, do you find that to be the case?

Oh, and @RumNotRun look about a bit once it's a bit warmer, there will almost certainly be self seeded ones popping up that you can transplant. They'll literally grow anywhere - I've had to remove several that have started growing out of cracks in blockwork. They're not picky!

Hard prune around mothers’ day( March in U.K.) was what my DM always said.

Grab a handful of old seed and spread them where you them or transplant some that will appear soon as @GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut said. I’m trying a sterile orange variety this year I have decided as a new garden and don’t want the extra weeding !

I've grown it from cuttings by just sticking a 6-8" green shoot into a pot of compost and keeping it well watered for a few weeks. Pruning is also easy, don't be scared of killing it and literally just saw it to a couple of feet tall. By summer it will be massive and bushy!