Little Rockstars set to steal the show

Every spring, gardeners actively seek out unique, interesting plants. Who wants the same old same old?

Often, a new plant is an improvement on an existing variety with the promise of more drought and heat tolerance, greater disease resistance, stronger stems and larger flowers. That’s always a good thing. And sometimes a new plant release is about a breakthrough colour in a plant series. That’s nice, too, but doesn’t necessarily result in a huge amount of excitement. In recent years, many new plant introductions have been “mini-me” versions of traditional garden plants that have been downsized to fit today’s tighter spaces. That’s useful, to be sure.

Enter Buddleia Little Rockstars. A compact series of butterfly bush exclusive to Dummen Orange, Buddleia Little Rockstars brings something entirely new and different to the patio table and front-of-border plantings. There really is nothing else like it.

Buddleia Little Rockstars has a compact, shrub-like form with a mature height of 30 centimetres and width of 46 centimetres. The floriferous, long-blooming cone-shaped flower spikes are sweetly fragrant and perky, too. The plump flower cones are also surprisingly large — 10-15 cm — in comparison to the overall dwarf size of the plant. The foliage is slightly toothed with a somewhat rough texture and bears a striking resemblance to the leaves of lantana. There are five colours in this intriguing new collection — blue, pink, purple, red and white.

But what exactly is buddleia?

The common name for buddleia (or buddleja) is butterfly bush. It is a flowering shrub native to China and Japan. Butterfly bushes are not the same as Asclepias milkweed plants although sometimes milkweed is referred to as butterfly bush. Buddleia is cold-hardy to zones 5 and 6 and grows to an enormous height and width (up to three metres tall and four metres wide) in southern climates. Older cultivars have gained notoriety for being invasive in warmer climates, however, newer varieties have been bred to be non-invasive and are seedless.

Both buddleia and buddleja are pronounced “buhd-lee-uh.” Buddleja, which is named after the English botanist Rev. Adam Buddle (1660-1715), is the original spelling given to the genus by Carl Linnaeus, an 18th century biologist who formalized the naming of plants. However, in his later works, the name appeared as buddleia. Both spellings are commonly used today.

What makes Buddleia Little Rockstars so appealing is that it is the smallest flowering butterfly bush currently on the market. Earlier this year, Little Rockstars Red was honoured with the National Garden Bureau’s 2025 People’s Choice Green Thumb Award for perennials. Hardy to Zone 5, Little Rockstars can be grown very successfully as a flowering annual in our Zone 3B climate.

The flower cones are strongly upright. This new plant’s naturally rounded habit and dwarf size makes it perfect for smaller, monoculture container designs or mixed planters. But what also makes Little Rockstars so special is its tolerance of a wide range of soil conditions, including sandy soil or heavy clay, as well as soil rich with organic matter.

However, Little Rockstars is not tolerant of wet and poorly drained soil. Good drainage in garden beds and containers is essential. Root rot is a risk if the plant is allowed to sit in water. A location that receives a minimum of six hours of full sun is a must for Little Rockstars.

Owen Vanstone, co-owner of Vanstone Nurseries, a wholesale grower in Portage la Prairie, grew Buddleia Little Rockstars last summer and says the collection flowered prolifically and continuously throughout July and August.

“It’s not often we get to talk about a new genera that offers a really different presentation,” says Vanstone. “A new petunia can be great but you kind of know what’s coming. Little Rockstars is really an interesting plant with shrub-like form that you wouldn’t expect in a flowering annual and (has) quite durable performance in the garden,” says Vanstone.

“The series has brilliant colours and they are quite resilient and have a very different texture than you would see in other types of annuals. Little Rockstars will produce a great big set of flowers that will open up over a number of weeks. Each flower sits on the plant for a long time like a hydrangea.”

Last August when Vanstone hosted an open house for growers in the horticulture industry, Little Rockstars was one of the new plants for 2025 he showcased. “I didn’t play at all with any container mixes but just displayed it on its own to show off the different varieties.” That was enough to convince many of his retail customers to add Little Rockstars to their annual plant orders. “Availability looks strong for this spring at local garden centres,” says Vanstone.

For container combos, Vanstone recommends pairing Little Rockstars with a trailing plant or something columnar and narrow like an ornamental grass variety.

Gaura strikes me as an ideal companion plant for Buddleia Little Rockstars. I can picture an over-the-top container recipe with a hydrangea tree in the centre of a large planter with Little Rockstars as the supporting cast, planted in multiples along the container’s edge and interspersed with the tall, airy wands of gaura that flutter in the lightest breeze.

I can also picture a single variety of Little Rockstars planted in a small pot on a patio tabletop and looking every bit like a floral bouquet. The tidy, floriferous form of Little Rockstars would also lend itself nicely to groupings of small pots in a complete colour assortment on the stairs leading to a front entrance or tucked around the base of taller, mixed planters.

You could also grow Little Rockstars as a low-growing annual hedge at the front of a sunny border for a long-blooming floral show. The Little Rockstars series will attract pollinators and is deer- and rabbit-resistant.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com

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