Schoolhouse,
Hi, I am a lurker on this site and live in Ohio,
I wanted to ask you about growing the butterfly bushes. Do they like full sun or can they grow in partial shade? How far back do you prune them?
roseberri

I'm no expert, but I have grown quite a few and can say they do like full sun best; but I have one that grows in front of a privet hedge where it only gets morning sun. It reaches, or grows, towards that sun tho. I prune all the old canes back to the ground or if there are quite a few new green leaves sprouting around the base of those canes, I will prune above those leaves. Hope this helps.

I prune in March.

I have to start on my general garden cleanup and prunning my roses. Those are my first spring chores.

All my butterfly bushes are planted in full sun. If I could get to them--which I can't; the snow's still too deep--I would prune them back to 8-10 inches from the ground this time of year. I'm guessing most of my spring garden chores will have to wait until it warms up enough to melt some of the 7 ft. of snow that fell back in Jan-Feb.

I have three or four roses that need pruning, and my maiden grass needs cutting back. The nandinas suffered quite a bit this winter and they need the uglies cut off. But my first chore this spring was to clean up the rock garden beds so the crocuses and other bulbs would look pretty without having to fight all those leaves to come up!My next chore will be to clean the leaves out of the dry creek and off the mosses (oh, and ask my DH to do the pruning!).

Thank you schoolhouse I may give them a try this year!
roseberri