[3] Buddleja sterniana is a deciduous multistemmed shrub often growing to > 3 m high, when it can become straggly unless pruned hard.

The faintly-scented flowers are pale lavender, with an orange eye, and arranged in small (< 6 cm long) panicles, which appear before the leaves on the previous year's growth, during April in the UK.

The leaves are much smaller than those of the type; the undersides are typically covered with a white tomentum.

[3] The shrub was originally grown at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, but by the Second World War only survived in the UK in the Chalk Garden of the eponymous Colonel Stern in Worthing, Sussex.

The shrub now features in the NCCPG National Collection held by the Longstock Park Nursery, near Stockbridge, in Hampshire, England.