Can anyone identify this disease(?) on my buddleia?

[LozengeShaped]

The young growth on my Buddleia has a strange growth abnormality, a bit like a virus. I can't see any aphids. The young leaves are misshapen with yellow-green patches, like some sort of hormone irregularity, but the older leaves are all fine.

What is it??? Thank you!

GeneralMusings - I think if you cut the tops off down to the next pair of shoots (at the next node down) you will still get flowers because, by removing the apical meristem you will encourage those side shoots to develop into branches which will then flower. Buddleias are tough, I think you'll still get flowers if you leave it now to grow back.

I've got the same but also noticed these little fellows.

That looks like a hoverfly larva to me, there to eat the aphids.

This has just started happening to a buddleia here in SW France. Never seen it before, budds usually grow like weeds. I have just gone out and examined closely. The crinkled leaves have no aphids but have a black residue on the back. I found a ladybird larva which was a clue, as they are predators, take good care of them. They look a bit spooky. 10-15mm long, black,grey and red with pointy tail. Some more examination revealed tiny insects on the back of some as yet undamaged leaves. Got my secateurs out and started trimming. When I emptied my barrow of cuttings, lots of ants were evident, which would have been another clue. It is forbidden to have a garden bonfire here , so the cuttings will be going to the municipal dump. (if they want to introduce silly legislation, they can deal with the outcome)

Mine looks exactly the same - I wondered what it was.

Mine too (Hampshire), I reported it last week after reading about the RHS reporting in their magazine.

Mine is exactly the same, not a cultivated variety but the bog standard native one, I keep it purely for the butterflies it attracts. It looks pretty poorly atm

I suggest cutting it back to a shape you like (remove all malformed leaves) give it a watering and a feed. Don't use insecticide, protect the bees.

Mine is looking like this too - Bedfordshire. I'm toying with cutting all diseased stuff back and letting it regrow, to see what happens. All the older leaves that came out earlier on in the spring are fine.

South London and my Davidii White Profusion is suffering from this - I've reported to RHS and will investigate ladybird food.

I have two, in completely different parts of my garden, and both have it. One of them is huge and it would be a very big job to cut off all the damaged parts (bad enough when it’s cutting-back time of year).

Would spraying with insecticide work?

So, cutting the buddleia back didn't work - the aphids came back and it is more infested than ever. Every tip of every stem is completely deformed to the point where I'm wondering if it will even flower now. Back in April it was absolutely bursting with health, a perfect specimen, and the aphids have absolutely ruined it. I'm really upset. I wanted butterflies to benefit from it, now unsure if any flowers will manage to grow, it looks so mangled. Aphids (blackfly) also present on dahlias, nasturtiums, willow, campanula... bloody things are everywhere.

My buddleia has some very strange shrivelled up leaves. I think mine also has this virus.

Both of my buddleia look like this and it is caused by black aphids. One buddleia in particular was absolutely covered in the aphids. For the past week, every time I’ve come across a ladybird I’ve picked it up and popped it onto the worst affected buddleia and tbh, what with the ones I’ve found and the ones naturally drawn to the buddleia, they’ve annihilated the aphids. So I’m hoping new leaves will start coming through healthily now.

I cut mine back a while ago and the new leaves are either growing mangled or have been attacked so chopped it back again....

I dint know what the right thing to do is. Some of the remaining leaves are starting to look a bit anemic too.

One of mine has this, bought this year from the garden centre, so I hope it hasn’t infected the large ones I have in the garden.
I planted it and it does seem to be growing new leaves but it was weird. Will take a pic shortly.

Most of my new growth is looking like this. Im not sure if it will flower, it wasn't like this when I purchased from the garden centre. Should I cut it off?

It seems to be everywhere. I has noticed it earlier on both mine, then I saw the report in The Garden magazine, when I went out and looked I did find some aphids, but they were hard to find.

Is anyone's buddleia in bloom? Mine is a fairly new shrub, just purchased this year. It has grown considerably but no signs of blooming yet.

Rather irritatingly I was on a train yesterday and noticed that the wild buddleja by the tracks don't seem to be affected. Maybe the aphids are fussy about where they live....

I noticed this yesterday on both mine. I've just had a look on the underside of the leaves and there are a lot of aphids and tiny caterpillars/grubs. I can't take any photos, as it's very windy here at the moment! Will it still flower?

I’ve had the same on both of mine in Derbyshire. Cutting back didn’t work 🫤

I just bought a couple of dwarf buddleias from T&M, both affected. They thought it was a virus or parasite and advised me to burn them.

@HerbieFluffyDumpling mine is making a heroic effort to bud, it’s a lot smaller than it usually is this time of year, but some of the new growth actually looks quite healthy.

Mine is the same - ive tried reporting but system doesnt seem to be working.
i even found a seedling in thevdruveway which is only 2” tall and thats all crinkled.

im assuming my plant will need to be taken out as it looks pathetic.