Thursdays favourite plant

The orange ball tree (Buddleia globosa)


Image via flickr

I have a enormous one that grows out of a tiny patch of dirt between the paving stones and the road at the front of the cottage it forms this huge arch other the gate that leads to no-where but compost and wheelie bins.

How can you not love this shrub, its covered with little balls of sunshine, that the bees and butterflies can't get enough of.

I love oranges and yellows this time of year so bright and cheerful after the winter or on days when its still cold and miserable (by summer I prefer cooler pinks and purples).

This rather different buddleia flowers earlier than the commoner "Davidii" type buddleia you see everywhere mid summer (love those too), So it needs to be treated a bit differently. This cheerful chappie should be pruned just after its finished flowering, not late winter like you would normally do with the usual buddleias ( you'll chop the flower buds off, and that would be terrible)

One word of warning though, globosa's can grow to monstrously epic proportions. Mine is bigger than my cherry tree!, so it will be getting hacked back a bit soon. You can be quite ruthless if they get straggly looking.