Buddleia 'Royal Red' 3L Pot Butterfly Bush 'Royal Red'

Buddleia davidii 'Royal Red' Butterfly Bush is a vigorous deciduous shrub with large, reddish-purple, sweetly-scented flower spikes and long, lance-like green leaves with pale undersides. The long, tapered flower spikes are magnets for butterflies but also attractive to a host of pollinating insects. Buddleia 'Royal Red' has an overall softly arching habit and is in full bloom between July and September, sometimes into October, providing an excellent source of late season food for pollinators and extending the blooming season in the garden. In autumn the leaves turn to a warm golden-yellow before falling.

This bushy shrub is fairly vigorous, growing up to 40cm a year. It can achieve a height and spread of around 8-9ft but can be maintained at a smaller size very easily. However, it will benefit from a decent amount of space in a large bed or shrub border to thrive, especially as Buddleja 'Royal Red' also boasts some of the largest blooms of any Buddleja, sometimes reaching an impressive 50cm long, so needs space to be shown at its best.

Buddleja 'Royal Red' prefers a moist well-drained soil and full sun although it will also grow reasonably well in partial shade. It's a tough and hardy shrub that is ideal for hotter locations being drought tolerant. Plant in a large sunny bed or border to make the most of this eye-catching and fragrant shrub and it will be easy to see why it is wholly deserving of its RHS 'Award of Garden Merit'.

We recommend deadheading the flowers on your Buddleja 'Royal Red' once spent to encourage more blooms. To maintain the plant, a hard prune around March, back to around 3 or 4 buds will ensure healthy growth and good flower production in summer.