Am I too late to chop back buddleia (and others)

[madamepopov]

We have just moved into a house with a proper garden for the first time. It's an enormous, but overgrown mature garden. I had read that the buddleia should be cut back in early March so I expected to be able to be moved in in good time, but everything is growing already. There's new growth on all the plants, some of the trees are already in blossom. Will I kill them if I cut them back in a week or two?
Thanks from a bit of a newbie!

No it'll be fine. Buddleia is very strong. It'll just start budding again..

If it's a mature shrub, you won't kill through a spot of pruning- the worst you'd do is cut off this year's flowers.

So if you want to cut something bothersome back, just do it!

Or, post pics on here and people can ID the plant and say if it will flower or not if pruned now.

Thank you. Maybe I'll just cut back half of them. They aren't bothersome just a bit leggy from years of not being pruned. I really don't want to risk a flowerless year though as we were really looking looking forward to all the butterflies in the summer!

It will still flower if you cut it back now, just a bit later than usual. Things like camellias that have the flower buds forming throughout the winter shouldn’t be pruned until after they’ve flowered.
Buddleias are tough as old boots, prune to a decent shoot and thin out where it’s crowded. It’ll be fine.