please advise novice garden girl!

Jeanie, Buddleja likes to be pruned hard every year. You do not have to be worried about pruning it quite a bit.

Welcome to Goy Jeanie...If you post this again on the Questions page,someone will be able to help you..Lots of members look in on that section..good luck :o)

I wasn't sure it was a Buddleja from the photo,Klahanie,so didn't want to comment.I'm sure it's ok to cut it back though..:o)

Good advice Bloomer.

Isn't it late in the year for that? Would it be more susceptible to a hard freeze in winter?
You might just top it of that long whippy growth,and some of the lower growth blocking the window. Conservative.

Stan, yes, the best to prune buddleia is March. I am not shy cut mine down to about 15-20 inches from the ground. It blooms on the new wood. It grows 6-8 ft tall every year. I do take off all the spent flowers in the summer. It will not look good if left on its own. You can see in this picture where it was cut last...... that's where the new long blooming branches started. This plant will always have "long whippy" growth as you describe it. That's what makes it charming.

I see now. My neighbor has one in her yard now that I think of it. I guess I mixed up the lower growth- Wisteria? Ivy? Parthenocissus? with the tall rangy Butterfly bush.

Still,in her climate is there enough time for a heading back to re grow? Or be stuck with the haircut look all winter? See,that's what I as an outsider gardener wouldn't know.