Monarch® Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush

Light Needs

Full Sun

(At Least 6 Hours Of Direct Sunlight)

Mature Height

4 Feet

Mature Spread

4-5 Feet

Growing Zones

5 to 10

Monarch® Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush may be one of the most explosive plants to include in your garden. Not only does this deciduous shrub bloom non-stop from summer to fall and have electric lime green foliage, but it attracts absolutely any beneficial pollinator in the neighborhood! Insect pollinators, hummingbirds and butterflies will compete to get at the nutritious nectar.

Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush is a great cultivar that is more compact than other Buddleia davidii. Less staking is needed and far less pruning during the summer is required to keep Crown Jewels clean and tidy. The flower plumes are produced all summer and make lovely fresh cut flowers for the vase. Regular deadheading will not only help keep more flowers forming, but will keep seeds from forming and spreading. The color combination of the lime green leaves and deep purple flowers may seem difficult to fit into an established garden border. Although the colors are intense, they act as a compliment to other deep green foliage or can be used as a focal point in a pond side planting or a Cottage Garden.

Monarch® Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush Care

Butterfly Bush makes for a nice drought tolerant shrub after it has been established for a year or two in the garden. Well drained, moist soil with average fertility is best. Extremely heavy clay soils will cause the roots to rot in the winter. A full sun to part shade situation is perfect and will provide the most flower spikes to form. 

Annual Maintenance for the Monarch Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush will be different depending on what hardiness zone you garden in. The colder zones may experience regular winter die-back. Crown Jewels bloom on the current season’s growth. Pruning in the early spring just as new growth emerges is the time to either remove damaged branches or cut the whole shrub back hard to 8 inches from the ground. Butterfly Bush will quickly recover with even better new growth and blooms. In the hotter hardiness zones, pruning to remove dead, dying, diseased and diagonal branches is all that is needed to tidy up from the winter.

Monarch® Crown Jewels Butterfly Bush Spacing

Crown Jewels are much smaller than a traditional Butterfly Bush. The mature height and width is 4-5 feet. Spacing this shrub at 4 feet is recommended. Lower growing perennials should be placed at least 3 feet from the base of Crown Jewels since the branches stay very low on the trunk and have dense foliage.