Pruning the Buddleia and Planting a Foxtail Lily

Buddleia is perhaps not the first choice for a small garden such as ours. But it was one of the first things we planted when we bought the house and it had of course grown well. From being a tiny plant of less than 30cm it was over 2 metres tall by the end of last year. It is planted near the decking and the fence between the next house and ours. This worked out as a good planting spot as it provides some privacy on our decking, as the fence to the next house is low. Buddleia attracts Butterflies and other pollinators, which is great for, but it is also listed as an invasive species in the UK. The reason why is obvious. When taking any train journey you will see it follows the tracks, often unbroken for miles in places. It's seed is very mobile and able to grow in the mortar of walls and buildings, which can cause significant damage if left unchecked. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are asking gardeners to remove flower heads before they go to seed to try and reduce the problems it can cause if it escapes the garden.

Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016

 Pollinators such as Butterflies love to visit Buddleia when it is in flower

I feel if pruned well and hard, it can fit into most gardens if wanted and although it requires care to stop it becoming too large and taking over, it is not difficult to cut it back to a manageable size. In the video below I show how I have pruned our Buddleia this year to try and create height and a canopy effect as well as allowing light and space into the garden.

Also in the video I planted A Foxtail lily (Eremurus) into a tarracotta container. One of the reasons we are planting in containers is to make it easier to take our plants with us when we one day move from our small one bedroom house to somewhere larger. However another reason is due to the presence of Horse Tail (Equisetum) in our garden, which is another highly vigorous plant, but unlike Buddleia is native to the UK. When we do eventually move house we do not want to take the Horse Tail with us. If we dug up plants from the borders we would almost definitely be transferring it to where ever we happen to go. Horse Tail is an annoying plant when not wanted in the garden to say the least, but is also an interesting plant which we will discuss further, when it not doubt starts to grow in the garden again this year.