Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Butterfly Bush

*Approved for sale to Oregon and Washington state

The Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Pink Butterfly Bush is a newer shrub, more compact than most other butterfly bushes, growing between 2 and 3 feet tall, and the same across. If you have a small garden, or a small bed to fill, or you need some foreground shrubs that won’t block taller shrubs behind, then this is a great choice. It is in flower all summer and well into fall, and its profusion of violet-pink flowers make a wonderful display against the soft gray-green of the foliage. It thrives in sunny and hot locations, where it produces the most flowers, and once established it is very drought resistant. Pests and diseases are rare, and this easily grown shrub is a delight anywhere you plant it.

The butterfly bush is an old-time garden staple, almost a heritage plant, but in some parts of the country it has fallen out of favor. Most varieties produce lots of seed, which spreads in city areas, but also into surrounding woodlands, where it has damaged local ecosystems. Some states, like Oregon and Washington, have put out absolute bans, and some other regions discourage its use. Of course, in many other areas these plants don’t spread – the surrounding environment is not suitable, but if you live in the Northwest, you are right to avoid planting them – or at least you were.

Growing Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Pink Butterfly Bushes

Gardeners are an enterprising bunch, and they don’t give up a valuable plant easily – so plant breeders have been working hard to create butterfly bushes that don’t produce seed, and that therefore do not spread. They have been so successful that a whole new name has been created for these 21st century butterfly bushes – the name, ‘nectar bush’. Under that name they can be sold into Oregon and Washington, and here at the Tree Center we make sure we have stock of these unique kinds of butterfly bushes, particularly for our Northwestern clients. This doesn’t mean you can’t grow these ‘nectar bushes’ everywhere, and you should, because they are a unique and different form of these reliable plants, with many smaller flowers, and a smaller size too, ideal for any smaller garden.

Will it Spread?

Top of our list of favorites is the Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Pink Butterfly Bush, which does not produce seed, and so absolutely cannot spread into any surrounding areas, and is therefore completely safe for the environment. Wherever you live you can enjoy this lovely shrub, with no concerns, and it really is a beautiful dwarf plant that deserves a place in every garden. If you have a sunny and hot area, perhaps with sandy soil that dries out in summer, you really can’t do better than plant this shrub.

Appearance

It will give you a profusion of flower spikes about 2½ inches long, each one packed with rich violet flowers, with a touch of pink about them. The plant is compact, with many branches, making a broad, neat mound less than 3 feet tall and wide. Every stem is tipped with a spike of flowers, and as each spike fades, more develop to take its place – usually two or more for every one that fades away. Flowering begins in mid-summer and continues right up to the first frost.

Uses on Your Property

Use the Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Pink Butterfly Bush as a small but colorful specimen in a smaller garden. Plant a row as a low informal hedge – a beautiful sight! It also makes an excellent container plant, for pots and planter boxes, giving height and color, and filling the planter completely right to the ground, or acting as a center-piece surrounded by annual flowers. However and wherever you use it, you will love this graceful and easily grown plant – the perfect choice for the busy gardener who wants flowers without troubles.

Care and Maintenance

Each spring, cut back to about 12 inches tall, removing all the smaller, twiggy branches, and leaving an open framework of the sturdiest ones. New growth will quickly develop, and in a few weeks the long flowering season will begin again – it’s really easy. You don’t need to remove the flower spikes as they die, to encourage more flowering, because since this shrub does not produce seed, the flowers simply wither and fade away.

Origins of the Flutterby Petite® Tutti Fruitti Pink Butterfly Bush

This shrub is part of a special series of sterile, non-seed-producing butterfly bushes developed at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, by Dr. Peter Podaras. His goal was to create new butterfly bushes, that would never produce seed, for the Northwest, and across the country – and he succeeded. He has produced a whole series of these new plants in a range of colors, collected under the name, Flutterby Petite® Butterfly Bushes. Of them all, our personal favorite is the one he called Tutti Fruitti Pink, or to give it the correct scientific name, ‘Podaras #13’.

Dr. Podaras and the University patented this plant in 2011, and the plant we will send you has been grown under license, by skilled horticulturists, who take stem pieces and root them, so that the complete genetic makeup of the plant is 100% preserved. These are very special plants, and the demand for them is huge, from all across the country. So if you live in the Northwest and miss the butterfly bush, or if you simply want a beautiful and easy-to-grow shrub for a sunny spot, that will simply never stop flowering, then order now, because our stock will soon be gone.