My Buddleia

[Mistymornin]

My buddleia seems to be unwell this year. I have googled, etc but nothing similar is coming up. There is nothing on the underside of some leaves besides blackfly and ants. Any idea?

Mine hasn’t come up at all!😀

at least there are leaves

My front garden one has no leaves ☹️

Blackfly.

That damage on the leaves is caused by blackfly, and the ants encourage them by protecting them from predators.

Since it's a buddleia, I'd be tempted to cut off all the worst bits, and hope for the best. It should still have time to produce flowers if you prune it now.

Brilliant - thank you! I will prune then.

Which? Actually recommended a hard prune for buddlias in may for best flowers, so definitely not too late for a chop.

That’s what the aphids do, suck the life out of the plant. The ants farm them. One spray of Bug Clear will get rid of them , be sure to get them all , cut of the worst curled leaves and dispose of them ( do not put them on the compost heap. Ant nest killer round the base of the plant.

you only have to do this once a season

No need for Bug Clear, nipping off affected foliage will control them, and no reason why they shouldn’t go on the compost heap, they’re not a spore producing fungus

It has had a number 2 haircare and a bit of ant powder around the base. 🤞 I get flowers this year. Thank you for all the advice.

I know this thread is from last year but mine is the same! How is yours now? Did it survive the prune and flower still? Thanks! 

@GlitteryFluff Just see your post. It survived the prune, had plenty of flowers but have exactly the same problem this year so I will do the same.

How funny I took a photo of mine as its the first time it's done this.

There's no sign of any bugs at all.

Did you prune it and then it was okay then? I thought mine might have reacted to being pruned as we'd just started! It's a bit of a screen between us and the neighbour so really don't want to prune it too much 😬😳.

@Mistymornin and anyone else. I'm wondering whether to heavily prune it now or whether it will sort itself out!

Its all the new leaves that are unhappy so it will leave it quite bare.

@GeneralMusings looking at your photo, I would leave it. It will still produce the flower cones. Mine was fresh growth at the top so it was easy to prune out plus the flowers were delayed. I will put ant powder round the base as suggested last year.

searching for similar issues and this thread came up!