Buddleia globosa

Buddleia globosa (Buddleja globosa), the Orange Ball Tree, is the buddleia that does not look like a buddleia. Instead of a long spike it carries clusters of perfectly round orange balls, each about 2cm across, held in loose sprays through spring and early summer. It grows to roughly 3.5m tall and 3m wide, fast, and the flowers carry a genuine honey scent that pulls in butterflies and bees from some distance.

Why you'll love it

• Flowers nothing else looks like. Tight orange spheres in open sprays, a colour and shape rarely seen in a hardy shrub this size.
• Honey scented. The fragrance is stronger and sweeter than the common purple buddleias, and it carries on a warm afternoon.
• Butterflies and bees swarm it. One of the better nectar plants for a large shrub, and it flowers early enough to matter in spring.
• Fast and forgiving. Frost hardy, drought tolerant and wind tolerant, so it can hold an exposed corner where softer shrubs shred.
• Screen height without a tree. At 3.5m it blocks a sightline, but the roots and scale stay well within what a suburban block can carry.

Where it works best

Feature planting. One plant at the back of a large border earns its place in spring and holds a good structural shape the rest of the year.

Informal screening. Plant 2m apart for a loose screen. This is an informal barrier rather than a clipped hedge, and because it is deciduous it thins out over winter.

Exposed and windy sites. Wind tolerance and drought tolerance together make it useful on a rural boundary or a windy hilltop garden.

Growing Buddleia globosa in Australia

Position and climate. Full sun for the heaviest flowering. It belongs in warm temperate, cool temperate and Mediterranean gardens, so Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and the tablelands all suit it well. It is frost hardy and appreciates a real winter. Humid subtropical and tropical gardens are not for it, where it grows soft and flowers poorly.

Soil. Any reasonable soil with drainage. It handles poor and stony ground, but not waterlogging over winter, so mound the planting hole on heavy clay.

Water and feed. Deep water weekly through the first two summers while it establishes, then only in extended dry spells. A light dressing of complete fertiliser in early spring is all the feeding it needs.

Pruning. This is the important difference from the common purple buddleias. Buddleja globosa flowers on wood grown the previous season, so cutting it back hard in late winter removes the entire display. Prune immediately after flowering instead, thinning out old stems and shortening the rest to shape.

What to expect when it arrives

This one is grown in tubes. You are buying a young single stemmed plant, usually 15cm to 25cm tall, rather than a shrub. With growth this fast that is not the drawback it sounds: a spring planted tube will often be over a metre by the end of its first season, and flowering by its second or third spring.

Because it is deciduous, a winter delivery may arrive as bare stems. That is normal and not a fault. Delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95, and covered by our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• More plants for bees and butterflies
• Browse the flowering tree range
• Planting a garden for fragrance
• Buddleia 'Joan', the purple flowered alternative

Common questions

When should I prune it?

Straight after flowering, in early summer. It blooms on the previous season's wood, so the hard late winter prune that suits purple buddleias would cut off this year's flowers entirely.

How far apart for a screen?

Plant 2m apart for an informal screen. Given each plant reaches about 3m wide, that spacing lets them overlap into a continuous mass without crowding each other into bare stems.

Does it lose its leaves?

Yes, it is deciduous, and in cool gardens it drops the lot over winter. Plan for a bare framework from about June to August and pair it with something evergreen if the spot needs year round cover.