Reviving Milkweed and Butterfly Bush During a Hot Summer

We’ve got Carol in Massillon, who says, ‘I have two milkweed plants that I put in two years ago and I did get chrysalis on them before, but they really dried out this year. I wasn’t as diligent at watering as I realized. Do I just let them go or should I just cut them down now and cut them back?’

You could still leave them if they’re still producing a little bit, if they do look a little rough you can cut off some of the worst ones. If they’re still seeding and providing flowers and leaves and that kind of stuff, you can leave it.

If it’s not, then honestly you could cut them off and then fertilize with an organic fertilizer or something like that. Or just even just give it a really good drink and keep up with that, and they should flush back out.

‘And the butterfly bush, I’ve had butterflies at it, but the long loom kind of things haven’t gotten as full. Is that just the weather?’

It might be hungry too. Butterfly bush, because they flower so heavily, they are heavy feeders. So if you’re not feeding that one, you can use a Jack’s Blossom Booster on that and it’ll really help encourage that plant to throw even more flowers out.

Jack’s Blossom Booster is a liquid fertilizer, you can use that this time of year because it only lasts for five to seven days. In the early spring, I would definitely put down the all seasons fertilizer on it. But I’m not going to recommend that this late in the year. Next March, April, put a really good heavy dose of the all season granular fertilizer down. And then if you want to, when you water you can add the Jack’s Blossom Booster and feed them on two different levels. It’ll make a huge difference on butterfly bushes.

If you cut it back in the spring and it came back real nice, but now it’s sad in the summer, that’s usually an indication that it is hungry. I would give it some fertilizer.

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