While on a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in NC and with the permission of the owner I clipped several flowers from a Butterfly Bush growing next to our cabin. It was apparent that the bush was close to the end of its flowering season. While the flowers grow sideways, they have a very nice cone shape. They ranged in size from 4 to 8 inches. On the larger ones, the "bottom" tended to be a bit sparse, but this should not be a problem.
"Front View" - I left one "tree" unaltered, it is on the left side of the picture and is a dark purple. One of the small trees, in the middle, looks like it grew up on the windy side of the mountain.
"Left Side" - here you can see that the cone shape des not cover what is now the back side.
"Back view" - So, the "growing" process was as follows:
When we returned home with the trees packed in a small box & carried on the plane, I sprayed them with a cheap hairspray and hung them to dry in the garage. After a few days, one of the smaller trees (on the right side of the above picture) became to first tree. After another spray, it was dusted with WS Green Blended Turf, sprayed once again, put into a piece of styroform and brought into the house.
I checked it several times during the next four days to see if it was holding, which it was. Today the remainder, but 1, went through the flocking and spraying process.
"Right Side" - What I particularry like is that there are small narrow leaves at the end of each secondary stem that do a good job of holding the turf.
Now, for those who think that this is a bit on the strange side (my first reaction was "its a what?") - check out butterflywebsite.com/articles/bgq/buddleia.htm for details about the bush.
My next task is to decide just where to plant these.
Cheers
Bill
Cheers
Bill
