Mature butterfly bush doesn’t have any leaves yet

Question

My mature butterfly bush doesn’t have any leaves yet. Is it a late bloomer? We recently moved to this property. There is a very mature butterfly bush with several thick trunks but not any life yet. Is this normal? What to do? How do I determine if it is dead? Last year it was beautiful.

Answer 1

You might like some more information on butterfly bush to begin: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/butterfly-bush/butterfly-bush-care.htm
To determine if the bush is alive, start at the ends of the branches and bend them. If they are bendy, the plant is still alive. If they snap apart and are all brown, they are dead. Also, you can scrape some tissue off the bottom of the trunks near the ground, and if you see green there’s still life, if there’s all brown, the stem (trunk) is dead. You can always remove dead branches; you might choose to prune the bush to help rejuvenation. This article has more pruning information: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/butterfly-bush/butterfly-bush-pruning-how-to-prune-a-butterfly-bush.htm
The winter was very hard. Some plants are taking longer to recover than others.