Buddleia x Birthday Cake™ – Birthday Cake™ Butterfly Bush

The Birthday Cake™ Buddleia is a true celebration of colour in the summer garden. This compact shrub displays generous panicles of brilliant magenta-pink flowers with a sweet fragrance, which act as an irresistible magnet for butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. Easy to grow, it offers a continuous and spectacular bloom until fall, transforming your garden into a non-stop ballet of pollinators.

Characteristics

• Foliage: Deciduous, silvery grey-green foliage that highlights the vibrant flowers and gives the shrub a soft texture.
• Flowering: From mid-summer until the first frosts, it produces large, conical panicles (spikes) of intense and fragrant magenta-pink flowers. It blooms on new wood, which guarantees a beautiful bloom even after a harsh winter.
• Light: Full sun is essential for healthy growth and abundant flowering.
• Habit: Adopts a bushy, dense, and well-rounded habit that is more compact than older varieties.
• Growth: Fast-growing, it reaches its mature size in one or two seasons. Its size is approximately 1.2 to 1.5 metres (4-5 ft) in height and width.
• Soil: Requires light and, above all, very well-drained soil. It does not tolerate heavy, wet soils, particularly in winter.
• Temperature: Hardy in Zone 5. In colder regions of Canada, it behaves like a perennial: its top growth dies back with the frost, but the crown survives to regrow vigorously in the spring if well-protected.
• Resistance: Good drought tolerance once established. White-tailed deer tend to avoid it.

Use

• Types of Use: Perfect in mass plantings, at the back of a border, in mixed plantings, or as a specimen in a butterfly or fragrance garden.
• Decorative Advantages: Its main asset is its prolonged summer bloom and its unparalleled ability to attract abundant life to the garden. The vibrant colour of its flowers makes it a powerful focal point.

Care

• Watering: Water regularly during the first year of establishment. Afterwards, it tolerates drought well.
• Fertilization: Fertilize lightly in the spring with compost or a balanced fertilizer. Avoid excess fertilizer, which promotes foliage at the expense of flowers.
• Pruning: Prune back hard in early spring (to about 20-30 cm from the ground), once the risk of frost has passed and new buds begin to appear at the base. Deadheading spent flowers during the summer will encourage continuous blooming.
• Planting: It is ideally planted in spring or fall. An early fall planting (late August to late September) will give it time to establish a good root system before winter, which is crucial for its survival.
• Winter Protection: In borderline zones (Zone 5), apply a thick mulch (leaves, straw, wood chips) over the base of the plant after the first frosts to protect the crown from cold and moisture.