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I love butterfly bushes, but our recent nasty winters killed off all of my plants. Japanese beetles also love butterfly bushes, so I wasn’t in a particular hurry to plant any new ones after the number of beetles increased again over the last several summers.
But this spring I purchased ‘Dark Dynasty’:
It’s a compact butterfly bush that’s supposed to top out at 3 feet tall. The flowers are a mix of dark and royal purple. They look lovely mixed with pink cosmos (this is ‘Velouette’):
‘Dark Dynasty’ is hardy in zones 5-10. I’m in Zone 5 and the plant is growing next to my porch. Hopefully that will give it a little extra protection during any bitterly-cold winters!
