Cut butterfly lilac: summer lilac cut

• Time to cut
• Types of pruning
• Cutting butterfly lilac
  • education section
  • preservation section
  • topiary
  • rejuvenation pruning
• Remove blooming inflorescences
• Changeable summer lilac
• Regular cut

The summer lilac is one of the classics among the flowering shrubs and impresses with a comparatively long flowering period. His long colorful inflorescences are a true butterfly magnet, which earned him the name butterfly lilac. A regular pruning is a prerequisite for the preservation of these flowers.

With its attractive appearance, the butterfly lilac, which should not be missing in any garden, pleases many garden owners. In principle, it is very easy to maintain at the right location. With the exception of the alternate summer lilac a regular pruning is the most important part of the care. The more it is cut back, the more intensive the branches branch and bloom in the same year.

Time to cut

In general, butterfly lilac (Buddleja davidii) should be cut twice a year, in late winter and summer. Cutting measures in late winter have the advantage that flowers form in the summer of the same year at the end of the shoots of the main shoots and those of the lateral shoots. The abundance of flowers can be significantly increased by this cut. The second cut in the year refers exclusively to the regular removal of withered inflorescences.

• First cut in late winter, about mid-February
• It includes a strong pruning and clearing of the shrub
• If necessary, cutting back into April is possible
• Then you can expect delayed flowering
• In the period from 01. March to 30. September, it is important to observe the breeding periods of the birds
• Check summer lilac for possible nests before any cutting
• Bird nests must not be damaged or removed
• Second cut of Buddleja davidii in summer during full flowering

Types of pruning

Summer or butterfly lilac (Buddleja davidii) always blooms on this year's wood. This means that both shoot growth and formation of flowering plants as well as the flower itself occur in this summer. Accordingly, they have to be blended every year. With the cut types one distinguishes between parenting, maintenance, form and rejuvenation cut. Parenting is about encouraging the plant to create new ground sprouts.

Conservation cut is usually the strongest and serves to create many new shoots and better branching. A shape cut is a bit more restrained and aims to keep the shrub in shape and / or to obtain a pleasing shape and thus prevent a Verkahlen. A rejuvenation cut is made primarily on overgrown and overgrown shrubs that have lost their natural habit. With him the peculiar growth habit and flowering joy of the summer lilac should be restored and maintained.

Cutting butterfly lilac

education section

In the educational section of Buddleja davidii care should be taken to keep the plant scaffold short. For this purpose, three to five ground shoots are left in each of the first three years. You should have a height of 50 to a maximum of 70 cm after the cut. Thereafter, the side shoots from the previous year remaining on the bottom shoots are shortened to short cones (branch stumps) with two to four eyes. In the last step you cut back the annual shoots to about 30 cm.

preservation section

Taking into account the bird breeding times, the conservation cut is carried out in late winter, for which one should definitely choose a frost-free day. In this section, the summer lilac can also be radically shortened, that is put on the stick.

• Shorten the shrub by about half, but at least 1 m
• Cut back young shoots on the shrub to about 30 cm
• Cut older shoots close to the ground to 10 cm long pins
• Aststummel dry later
• Before complete drying, new shoots form at their base
• In summer, remove the dried-up cones
• In a pruning without pins, formation of new shoots is missing
• Interfaces usually dry up to the old wood
• When cut properly, just scaffold the plant with stubs of one year old shoots left over

If you want to do without such a strong cut, but still want to preserve the flowering and the species-typical habit of the summer lilac largely should, in any case, all outdated, dead, weak and sparrigen shoots cut out. In addition, too close and intersecting shoots should be cut close to the main trunk. If you completely refrain from the year-round clearing, the butterfly lilac can be greatly blanched from the inside over time.

Tip: These radical cuts also have a drawback, as they can develop over the years to dense shrubs with strong Astquirlen. In order to counteract this as well as possible, it is indispensable to correct these Astquirle regularly.

topiary

The shape of this plant can only be influenced to a limited extent. For this, one must first decide whether to attach importance to large flowers or rather to a uniform silhouette or a shapely crown structure. If it is especially about large flowers, you cut all flowering shoots from the previous year heavily, at best, so far that only short stubs remain behind. This results in the formation of new shoots with particularly large flower candles.

On the other hand, if the main focus is on a beautiful crown construction, you have to accept a shorter flowering period and less flowering. For this cut, you first clear the butterfly bush thoroughly. For this purpose, one intersects crossing, too close and too weak shoots on short cones with two buds back. Of the healthy and vital shoots one cuts then, the best positioned about a third, while the remaining two thirds or half are withdrawn.

rejuvenation pruning

A rejuvenation cut is made predominantly on overgrown, overgrown and long-neglected specimens to encourage the formation of new shoots and flowering and return the plant its peculiar growth habit. But even if the butterfly lilac is subjected to regular cutting measures, it can happen that it sheds with time from the inside out. Croaking means that only in the upper part of the plant develop new shoots and inside the crown only bare branches and twigs are visible.

• With older, verkahlten plants a rejuvenation cut mostly indispensable
• Cut is to stimulate plants again to new growth
• The older the summer lilac, the more difficult it is
• The danger that new shoots will fail is higher, the older the plant is
  To rejuvenate older shoots close to the ground, cut back on 10 cm long branch stump
• The whole regardless of whether young shoots are present or not
• Then wait for new shoots to form and rebuild the shrub

Tip: Regardless of the type of cut, larger cuts should always be closed with a wound sealant, such as tree wax.

Remove blooming inflorescences

Not only the plant itself must be blended, also withered inflorescences should be cut regularly. The large flower panicles sit at the summer lilac first on the shoot tips of the main drives. Once these have withered, new flowering plants form on the side shoots. In order for these too magnificent flower spikes to develop, the withered flowers on the main shoot tips should be cut off promptly. Otherwise, the summer lilac forms seeds on these withered panicles, which requires a lot of energy, which in turn lacks the new flowers for their development. When removing the withered inflorescences, you should take care not to scatter seed as possible.

Tip: Butterfly lilac is an invasive plant (neophytes) that can spread unchecked if the seeds ripen. It is therefore all the more important to remove withered inflorescences promptly and, if possible, not to dispose of them on compost, but rather in household waste.

Changeable summer lilac

The alternate summer lilac (Buddleja alternifolia) is an exception to the pruning. In contrast to Buddleja davidii it forms its flowers on last year's wood. If cut in the same way, you would cut away the flowering plants for the current year. In addition, the overhanging habit would largely be lost.

Because of this, you should cut this species as little as possible. If a pruning is inevitable, for example, when the bloom subsides, it is advisable to make a partial cut in the summer and to take in the next few years per year always only single branches out. Although this also reduces the flowering, you do not have to do without flower decoration completely.

Regular cut

Cutting measures on the butterfly lilac (Buddleja davidii) should be done every year, because the flowers are formed exclusively on the new or this year's wood. Before considering a pruning of this plant, one should consider whether it is primarily about large flowers or a uniform crown structure or a beautiful form of the wood. Because both can usually not afford the plant.

• For large flowers, leave two-year shoots only short stub with two eyes
• If the growth habit is in the foreground, shorten the cutting heights of the branches variably
• When cutting back, make the Astquirle regularly thinned out
• Astquirle are thick, intergrown branches
• Their thinning has optical reasons on the one hand
• On the other hand, it should stimulate the plant to form new shoots
• Against the strong spreading urge of the plant, withered flowers quickly and regularly remove
• Do not dispose of wilted inflorescences on the compost, better with household waste
• Cut only on frost-free days
• Use only sharp cutting tools
• Blunt tools could split the already brittle wood

In addition, care should be taken when cutting to ensure that the cut surfaces or wound edges are smooth and not frayed. For thicker branches, it is also useful to proceed in several steps. First, the branch in question is sawn from above to prevent it from tearing out. Then you saw it from below. In the last step, the stump can be cut off, if desired. As already mentioned, it makes more sense to let the stump dry on the plant and only then remove it.