Flutterby Grande® Peach Cobbler Butterfly Bush

The Butterfly Bush has gone through a revolution in the past decade or two. Once it was realized how invasive it could be, breeders set to work creating new forms that would not produce seed, and that would therefore be safe to grow. They were successful, but some gardeners still hankered after the old-style, big bushes, with large curving flower spikes, sweetly scented and a magnet for butterflies. If you love that kind of butterfly bush, but want to protect your local environment, then the Flutterby Grande® series, created at Cornell University, is for you. Among the varieties, our personal favorite, and the one we are sure you will love too, is Peach Cobbler. Producing no seed, it grows to over 6 feet, and it is smothered with big, fat flower heads – a real winner for sure.

The Flutterby Grande® Peach Cobbler Butterfly Bush is a medium-sized shrub, with long arching branches, reaching heights of between 6 and 8 feet, with a spread of 4 to 6 feet, depending on where you climate, and how hard you prune this bush. The leaves are 5½ inches long, but slender and tapering, only 1½ inch wide at their widest point. They have an attractive textured surface, slightly hairy, and they are a beautiful silvery-green. The leaves are quite widely spaced along the branches, so the bush has an open, airy look.

Of course, with a butterfly bush, it is the flowers we are here for, and this splendid plant certainly has those to offer us. The end of every branch carries a long, arching spray of flowers, in clusters along the stem, creating a conical flower head a full 4½ inches long, and 2½ inches across at the widest point. These long flower heads have a graceful, casual elegance that fits perfectly into every garden setting. There are about 600 tiny flowers in every head, making a magnificent show. Each flower begins pink, with a deeper pink center, and turns beautiful salmon-peach as it matures. Every branch begins with a flower head at the end, and then produces many side-branches, each bearing another flower-head. The result is a bush literally covered in blossoms, that begin in early to mid-summer, and continue right up to the first hard frost. That long flowering season is perfect for continuing your garden display, after the flurry of flowering in spring. Since the flowers are sterile, and cannot produce seed, they just fade away, to be replaced by new ones, and you don’t even have to dead-head, if you don’t want to. The flowers will just keep coming and coming.

We don’t just love the flowers, so do the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. This plant is a wonderful source of rich nectar for local insect populations, and these plants are always highly-recommended for butterfly gardens, and by beekeepers. This classic plant has always been a top favorite with children, who love to watch the activity as butterflies in a rainbow of colors cluster on the flower heads, feeding. Hummingbirds too will visit, and everyone loves to see those amazing creature hovering in the air while they feed. The sweet fragrance of the blooms will fill the air, and you can be content, knowing that the Flutterby Grande® Peach Cobbler Butterfly Bush can never spread seeds into surrounding natural areas.

Plant the Flutterby Grande® Peach Cobbler Butterfly Bush in full sun. This plant thrives on heat and drier soil, so it is a perfect choice for hot, sunny places in your garden. When newly-planted you should water once or twice a week, but within a few months it will be growing vigorously, and drought resistant. Because it is so drought-resistant, this plant is a perfect choice for a xeric, or ‘drought-proof’ garden, and it will bring brightness and color, yet be low-maintenance. These plants rarely suffer from any pests or diseases, and if the soil is well-drained, and the plant is in full sun, you will find it very, very easy to grow. An annual pruning is all that is needed. Do this in spring, once you begin to see new growth on your bush. Remove any dead branches back to where you see buds growing, and remove all thin branches. Leave a framework a foot or two tall of the sturdiest shoots from the previous year or two, as fresh, newer branches produce the most flowering shoots. That’s it. nothing more is needed.

The Flutterby Grande® Peach Cobbler Butterfly Bush was created by Peter Podaras in 2005, at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he was a plant breeder in the Department of Horticulture. He took pollen from an old garden favorite, Buddleja davidii `Pink Delight` and used it to pollinate flowers of the rare and amazing yellow butterfly bush, Buddleja weyeriana `Sungold’. Among the seedlings he raised one caught his eye, and he and the University patented it with the name of ‘Podaras #5’ in 2011, after it had been carefully trialed and assessed. Because of its size he added it to his series of taller, non-seeding plants called Flutterby Grande®, and gave it the name Peach Cobbler because of its flower colors. Our plants are grown under license, and they are true to that original plant. Everyone is growing these new, no-seeding butterfly bushes, that can be sold and grown as ‘Nectar Bush’ even in states that have banned Buddleja. We always sell our stock of these beauties very quickly, so order now – you won’t regret it.