Buddleia davidii (Butterfly Bush) is a wonderful semi-deciduous shrub with large, fragrant, colorful flowers that attract a flutter of butterflies into your summer garden. Butterfly Bushes are extremely easy to grow and any novice gardener will have success with this genus. B. davidii is an extremely popular garden plant due to its low maintenance, long flowering season, colourful and fragrant flowers, and its attractiveness to butterflies.

Most Buddleia are tall and need to be placed at the back of a bed but there are some dwarf Buddleia that will look good at the front of the border or as edging plants. Buddleia should be sited near a window, along a path, or close to a patio or porch where you can appreciate the scent the wonderfully fragrant blossoms during the summer months. In addition, they are quite tolerant of urban pollution which makes them well-suited to city landscapes and roadside plantings.

B. davidii is tolerant of a broad range of environmental conditions, capable of prolific seed production, grows rapidly, and has a short juvenile period.

Younger wood is more floriferous, so even if frosts do not kill the previous year's growth, the shrub is usually hard-pruned in spring once frosts have finished, to encourage new growth. The removal of spent flower panicles may be undertaken to reduce the nuisance of self-seeding and encourage further flower production; this extends the flowering season which is otherwise limited to about six weeks, although the flowers of the second and third flushes are invariably smaller.

B. davidii thrives on a wide range of soil types. The species is able to establish on calcium based building debris and masonry walls, on soils that are high in sand, nutrient poor and in high calcareous substrates, able to flourish in calcium-deficient soils and is capable of colonizing areas with a pH of 6.0 to 8.91

Leaves are shed in the autumn and immediately replaced with a set of new, smaller leaves that persist until the following spring.

Leaves are opposite, usually ovate and shortly petiolate. The upper surface of leaves is dark-green and glabrous or free of hairs, whereas the lower surface is white-tomentose with stellate and glanduliferous hairs. Leaves range from 5-20 cm long and 1-7 cm wide . Leaf margins are finely toothed.

Inflorescences appear at the terminal end of branches arranged in indeterminate corymbose-panicles that can extend up to 30 cm long.

The hermaphroditic flowers in the wild are commonly lilac and purple whereas flowers of cultivars range from white to yellow and red. The interior of the flower is orange with a series of yellow nectar guides leading to the interior of the tube.

B. davidii does not self-pollinate and therefore depends on insect pollinators. Due to flower morphology and abundant nectar, butterflies may be sufficient pollinators although bees, hummingbirds and other insects visit the flowers. The flowering B. davidii has been closely linked with butterflies, moths and hummingbirds. Several butterfly species have been found on B. davidii. Also other insects have been observed as visitors, such as wasps, hornets, lacewings and beetles