First Bloom on Butterfly Bush Recovering From Cat-astauphic Damage

Remember the butterfly bush that we rescued from the clearance rack of 'the orange store' last year?  We carefully pruned the broken branches off it, transplanted it to this bigger pot and eventually planted it in the ground on the East side of the house.


It recovered well and was doing great.....until the neighborhood cats decided it was a nice thing to lay on and play with that is.   So, then we put this little fence around it with a 'roof' of sticks on top to keep them out.







The cats had broken most of the new branches that had grown on it over the winter after we transplanted it and we weren't sure if it would recover from this. 

But now, it has grown a few new branches and one of them is even blooming!  This is one tough plant and is certainly a good choice for landscaping in our climate of the Mojave Desert.  It gets just a little water every day from the soaker hose that you may see in the pictures above. The hose circles around the plant just outside the dripline (or where the dripline was before the cats mangled the plant).  That seems to be all it needs once it is established and is still this size. As it gets bigger, we'll set up a bigger irrigation system for it using netafin tubing.

It is doing well now, but has really lost a lot of ground compared to where it would be by now had it not suffered cat-astrophic damage.  If you have cats, please keep them inside!  Do not let them run your neighborhood tearing up other people's stuff and turning their yards into outdoor litter boxes.  Much of the upkeep for the yard at this house is trying to clean up after all these loose cats.

First bloom on this butterfly bush since the cats mangled it earlier this spring.

Oleanders pruned properly by yours truly

Same Oleanders pruned wrong by someone else

I've been pruning these Oleanders for several years.  This year, I wasn't available when the owner decided to have them pruned.  The person who they hired was asked to cut just a little bit off the top so it doesn't stick above the glass of the windows.  That person chose not to listen and did way too much.

Now, I will do my best to heal the Oleanders back up. It will take a long time.  Many species of shrubs wouldn't even recover from a severe cut like this. Oleanders are among the very few that can.   They will most likely start sprouting from the base before they begin to look like they used to be.  We will probably have to cover them with sheets on cold nights this winter to prevent frost damage. We may try planting Buffalograss underneath instead of Lantanas as the owner has now informed me that they don't want a lot of growth under the Oleanders.  Buffalograss will only get three inches tall or so out here.  

This is a good lesson to learn.  Be careful who you hire.  Make sure you find someone who actually knows what they are doing and will actually listen to you instead of doing whatever they usually do.