get yer 'air cut son!

'Hair cut time!'
'Oh no!'
'I'm afraid so'.

You can hear the same conversation between gardeners and their buddleia davidii shrubs all over the country in February.

Buddleias are the only introduced species I can think of that have had a totally beneficial effect on our environment. Discuss! There is no better bush for attracting butterflies.

They are also one of those wonders of the gardening world for putting on amazing growth each year. Eight feet of growth is common - so they need a good haircut in February or they'll take over the world!

This old lady has been going for twenty years now and was mugged by a vigorous vitcella clematis alba luxuriens in July. It just got too competitive out there and the new kid on the block clematis swamped the aging buddleia, as you can see from the photo before the drastic pruning. After the haircut, all of last years growth was cut away leaving lots of room for this years new shoots, on which the flower spikes will sit proudly.

The rampant clematis has been carefully dug up and moved to a new home!

And the prunings were chopped up and used as a mulch, which my trained garden assistants are steadily moving around the borders. Very helpful.