Cranrazz Butterfly Bush

The butterfly bush is a popular favorite in gardens, easy to grow, colorful all summer, and a magnet for butterflies, other insects and even hummingbirds. If you have small children around it’s a wonderful way for them to see butterflies and to overcome any fear they may have of insects. These tough and easily-grown plants are perfect for hot and sunny spots in the garden, and they have the perfect look for today’s more natural approach to gardening. Their colorful flowers brighten everything, and they bloom from early summer into fall, right up to the first frost.

The main problem has been the size of the traditional varieties, which can become small trees, while many of the newer Butterfly Bush varieties have small flower clusters. With the Cranrazz Butterfly Bush you solve both issues with a shrub of moderate size for a smaller space, and big flower clusters of a wonderful wine-purple color, along with the classic honey fragrance everyone loves. It will soon become the most popular plant in your whole garden.

Growing Cranrazz Butterfly Bushes

The Cranrazz Butterfly Bush can be kept about 4 feet tall with a single spring pruning back to a few low branches, or you can let it to reach 6 or 7 feet by pruning only a little. The spread will accordingly be between 3 and 9 feet, making this shrub versatile in any garden, and useful for lots of different spaces. You can even spread it out on a wall, and it will take up no room at all. This plant has an open, arching structure, with a few main branches, covered in rough, gray-brown bark, and many side branches, carrying a profusion of flowers. The leaves are 4 to 5 inches long, and narrow, with a soft fuzziness to them. They are gray-green above, and grayer below, and they arch outwards in pairs from each joint of the stems. New flower stems are constantly being produced from buds at the base of every leaf.

Appearance and Fragrance

It is the flowers that really make the Cranrazz Butterfly Bush such a great addition to your garden. The individual flowers are tiny, but there are about 500 of them on every big, fat flower spike, with each spike about 8 inches long. They curve out from the ends of every branch, and the flowers open from the bottom up, until they become arching beacons of vibrant wine-purple, lighting up your garden.

The flowers give off a sweet honey fragrance that wafts across the garden, and the scent and color attract scores of butterflies. You won’t have realized how many there are in your neighborhood until you see them feeding on the flowers, sometimes weighing them down with their numbers. As well as colorful butterflies, a hold host of nectar-eating insects will be attracted, and outclassing even the butterflies, you will often see hummingbirds feeding from them, hovering on their rapidly-vibrating wings while they flit from flower to flower.

Planting and Initial Care

To top it all off, the Cranrazz Butterfly Bush is one of the easiest plants to grow almost anywhere. It is hardy all the way from zone 5 to 9, and it will grow in any sunny spot. Even poor, hard soil doesn’t bother it, and this is a shrub that thrives in urban conditions. From sand to clay, and acid to alkaline, all drier soils are fine with this plant, and it will grow several feet in a single season, blooming profusely the whole time. It is not bothered by pests or diseases, and deer usually leave it alone too. An annual pruning, in late winter or early spring is always a good idea for this plant.

In cold zones wait until the new shoots are just showing, and remove all the weak and crowded branches, leaving a framework of well-spaced strong ones. To keep it shorter, for a confined space, cut back to just a foot or so above the ground, cutting the stems just above a pair of new buds. If you have more room, or want to enjoy a larger bush, then just cut the tips off the branches, after removing any weak and crowded ones. As well, to enjoy the maximum number of blooms, remove any that have finished blooming as soon as they are no longer attractive. Cut back to the first or second pair of strong buds. This will encourage lots of new flowers and prevent your plant from producing seed. This will also eliminate any chance of this plant escaping into natural areas, which has been a problem in some states.

History and Origins of the Cranrazz Butterfly Bush

The Cranrazz Butterfly bush is a selected form of a plant that originated in China, the common butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii). Wild plants can reach 15 feet in height, and most of the garden plants grown are hybrids of other species and varieties. In 2011 Scott Trees, from California, took pollen from the butterfly bush called ‘Miss Ruby’ and used it to pollinate another variety, ‘Attraction’. Among the resulting seedlings he found one he called ‘Boscranz’, which had wonderful, large, purple flowers on a compact plant.

The plant was patented in 2015 by Ball Horticultural Company and it is sold as the Cranrazz Butterfly Bush. Our plants are grown under license, and they are identical to the original plant, with all its great qualities. The butterfly bush is always in great demand, and this is one of the very best varieties available, so our stock will not be with us long. Order now or lose the chance to enjoy this top-rate plant in your own garden.