I presently have five Buddleja's in my garden: two 'Flower Power' near the vegetable patch, two 'Royal Purple' on the other side of the garden and a 'Wisteria Lane' near the house.
The 'Wisteria Lane' was planted this Spring, is doing fine and is not a problem (for now).
The 'Flower Power' are two the oldest Buddlejas. This year the flower spires on both are much smaller than in past years and to make things worse, one of the two always has droopy leaves the instant temperatures go over 80°F. I pruned both plants hard this past Winter and I fear this may be the cause for the flowering issues. This however doesn't explain the droopy foliage as the two are planted 4' apart (with a Spanish broom in the middle) and get exactly the same light, wind, rain etc. I have taken to providing extra water to both despite being established plants but this is not having any effect: one plant has droopy foliage, the other doesn't.
The 'Royal Purple' are exactly the same thing: one gets droopy the instant temperatures get over 80°F, the other doesn't. Here things are even weirder because the one doing better (doing great in fact: its flower spires this year are enormous) is in an awful position and I have tried watering it far less often (still not fully established) as an experiment. I havent hard pruned either plant yet.
Buddleja's here do great: you see them growing wild in empty lots and the like and there's even a truly gigantic one growing next to an abandoned factory where it hasn't been watered nor cared for in many years. All mine did great until last year as well.
I honestly have no clue what is happening: eelworms cause aborted flowers and deformed shoots, not droopy foliage, and they aren't a problem here anyway. I haven't found anything in the literature that can help so I though somebody here may have run into the same issue.
Thanks.
