Plant: Black Knight - Butterfly Bush
Butterfly Bush · Buddleja davidii 'Black Knight'
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Black Knight is the most commonly available butterfly bush cultivar and carries the darkest, deep purple flowers of the group. It makes a fast growing, arching, multi stemmed deciduous shrub of roughly 6 to 12 feet with coarse gray green to dark green opposite leaves. Small fragrant tubular flowers with an orange throat are held in long panicles from June into fall and draw butterflies, bees, pollinating insects and hummingbirds. Give it full sun and well drained soil, since the roots rot quickly when waterlogged, and cut it back hard before spring growth for the best display. Note that this species is listed as weedy and invasive in parts of the United States.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 12 ft tall and 15 ft wide
- Blooms in summer, fall
- Hardy in USDA zones 5-9
- Deciduous foliage
Plant description
Black Knight is the most commonly available butterfly bush cultivar and carries the darkest, deep purple flowers of the group. It makes a fast growing, arching, multi stemmed deciduous shrub of roughly 6 to 12 feet with coarse gray green to dark green opposite leaves. Small fragrant tubular flowers with an orange throat are held in long panicles from June into fall and draw butterflies, bees, pollinating insects and hummingbirds. Give it full sun and well drained soil, since the roots rot quickly when waterlogged, and cut it back hard before spring growth for the best display. Note that this species is listed as weedy and invasive in parts of the United States.
- Flowers
- Small scented tubular flowers with an orange throat are packed into 5 to 12 inch panicles; on Black Knight they are dark purple, the darkest of the butterfly bushes.
- Pruning
- Prune to within one foot of the ground annually before spring growth begins to improve the flower display, and deadhead spent panicles to extend bloom into October.
- Native range
- Tibet to Central and South China
