Buddleja × weyeriana 'FLOWER POWER' (syn. 'Bicolor') butterfly bush, buddleja

Buddleja

The genus Buddleja, commonly known as butterfly bush, is a botanically diverse and geographically wide-ranging group of woody plants comprising more than 140 species distributed across Asia, Africa and both Americas. Having evolved on four continents, it shows remarkable variability, from small shrubs barely exceeding a metre in height to trees approaching thirty metres. Although now placed in the family Scrophulariaceae, its taxonomic history is complex – in the past it was assigned to Loganiaceae and even to its own family, Buddlejaceae, before modern systematics settled on the current concept. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) in honour of the English botanist Adam Buddle (1662–1715), following the recommendation of the physician and plant collector William Houstoun (1695–1733), who sent the first specimens of Buddleja americana from the Caribbean to England roughly fifteen years after Buddle’s death. Its ability to attract winged insects, especially butterflies, earned it the name “butterfly bush” in many languages during the twentieth century. Although no species is native to Europe, Buddleja has become one of the most widely grown ornamental shrubs here. The species differ not only in appearance but also in pollination strategy: American forms often developed long red flowers adapted to hummingbirds, whereas Asian species attract almost solely insects for which they have an abundance of nectar throughout the summer.

Buddleja × weyeriana originated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Gloucestershire, England, where John Christopher van de Weyer (1841–1910) experimented with crossing B. davidii and the South American B. globosa. It was a bold attempt – the two species come from different continents, have different inflorescence shapes, different scents and different growth rhythms – yet this very disparity gave rise to one of the most significant chapters in ornamental horticulture. Van de Weyer worked at a time when British gardens were enthusiastically embracing exotic plants, and butterfly bushes were then a novelty promising colour, fragrance and clouds of butterflies. The hybrid he managed to obtain combined the long panicles of B. davidii with the warm yellow‑orange tones of B. globosa, creating an entirely new type of buddleja with colours that had never existed in the genus before. The first plants spread quickly among collectors, and by the 1920s cultivars such as ‘Golden Glow’ and later the famous ‘Sungold’ had become icons of naturalistic gardens. Buddleja × weyeriana thus represents a botanical milestone standing between two worlds – the cool elegance of the European B. davidii and the sun‑soaked, honey‑scented warmth of the South American B. globosa – and its creation remains one of the loveliest stories in horticultural history.