Buddleja davidii Camberwell Beauty 'Camkeep'
Words: Graham Rice
The three year trial of buddlejas that the RHS ran at Wisley, and which ended last year, was one of the most impressive of recent trials. There were 125 forms of Buddleja davidii, the familiar butterfly bush, planted, along with some hybrids and one of the real stars was Camberwell Beauty ('Camkeep').
Given a unanimous Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the assessment panel, in particular they liked the fragrant violet flower spikes of Camberwell Beauty and the fact that the spikes were branched, rather like those of the much taller ‘Dartmoor’, and so made a more colourful impression than many others. I also noticed that the branched flower heads helped mask the browning of the early flowers as they faded. Flowering began in mid-July and continued well into September.
The assessors also made a point of highlighting its broad but compact habit, the plants matured at about 90cm (3ft) high but about 2.3m (7.5ft) across! Clearly this is unsuitable for some situations, but considering that the plants were pruned hard each spring, that’s impressive.
All the plants in the trial were also assessed for their attractiveness to butterflies. Camberwell Beauty came low on the list, but the most visited were mainly those that made large plants, in some cases too large for many gardens, with masses of flowers.
Camberwell Beauty is one of four buddlejas developed at East Malling Research in Kent by plant breeder Elizabeth Keep. Her aim was to create prolific plants that were shorter than traditional varieties.
You can download the full report on the trial (pdf), with details of butterfly visits and how the plants were looked after and pruned.