American Lady Nectaring at a Butterfly Bush Blossom

The butterfly bush earned its name honestly. This perennial shrub is a butterfly magnet.  When a butterfly bush is in full bloom, it will often attract more butterflies than any other plant in Georgia backyards.

However, if you want a butterfly bush to continue producing a bounty of blooms that will feed colorful butterflies throughout the summer, regularly prune the shrub’s spent blooms before they produce seeds.  This procedure is called deadheading.

The best way to deadhead a butterfly bush is to snip off all  spent clusters of blooms down to just above the first set of leaves below flower. This can be best accomplished using a garden pruner or pair of scissors.