You have gotten a lot of advice here, some of which may seem a bit contradictory, so I am not surprized that you don't have a clear idea of what to do. First, let me say that as I have read this thread I have not jumped in because what I have seen here has generally been good advice. But I see now that you need a referee or something, so I will try to help. One of the problems is that all trees are a little different. Not only is the degree of root "congestion" in the pot different, but different kinds of trees respond differently to different treatments. But I can't see--and feel, etc.--the roots you are dealing with, and I am not familiar with all the different species of trees and how they may react to different treatments. But let me give some general advice that will help you. First, if you do any of the things recommended, it will be either good or OK. Slitting the rootball in thirds will keep any of the encircling roots from strangling some of the roots later. But undergropund roots generally don't strangle the tree--roots generally graft over themselves. The real danger is a root that encircles the base of the trunk (girdling root). These must be removed. But better than slitting the root ball is as much as possible to "tease out" some of the encircling roots so they can be extended a bit. But often the root ball is so tight with the roots crossing each other, both in and then outside, that this is virtually impossible. In this case slitting the ball in three places is about all you can do. If you can tease out/unwind some of the roots (and you can both do this and cut some larger/longer encircling roots) you will need a big hole to allow them to spread out a bit. But some of the roots you are able to tease out/unwind may be very, very long. In that case it may be beST to shorten them a bit, or a lot, because if you don't, they will still encircle the root system or make a tangle. But if that happens, it is not really fatal. Sometimes with some kinds of trees in pots the root ball just seems like a dense fibrous mass. It is hard to find individual roots to tease out/unwind. In that case three slits and then some roughing up of the root mass to loosen it a bit is about all you can do. If you do any of the things recommended here, you will be doing more than most people do when they plant these root bound trees. Have confidence and go ahead and do the best you can--use your common sense. A lot of this will be intuitive as you start working with these root balls. Just see what you can do to undo some of the tangle, one way or the other. But one warning--these root bound trees will need more watering for maybe up to three years than a tree not so root bound. The roots will need time to get into the native soil--water that gets to the root mass that was originally in the pot will not last more than a day or two in hot weather. The more roots you can unwind/tease out and get into the native soil, the more drought resistance the tree will have. --Spruce

Thanks for the heads up on the White Ball and taking cuttings, butterflyman. I'm contemplating putting it in a very large container this first year to make sure it gets all the sun it can. Pictures of splayed buddleias not getting enough sun have given me pause regarding amount of sun it'll get in Butterfly Garden. Pretty sure it'll get 6-7 hours of sun but will monitor it and move to sunnier spot if it doesn't work out. I was absolutely nixed on idea of cutting down (or severely side pruning) relatively healthy White Pine that would give me much more sun in Butterfly Garden. Since it's my father's yard and tree I had no choice...LOL. I was considering one of the Nahoensis but people with experience growing them and some web sites said they actually get more to 5-6 feet wide instead of 4 feet. Don't have room for that. Want to make sure I keep some good air circulation in garden so as not to stress young plants and risk disease or invite more than naturally occurring powdery mildew. Probably going to try new tiny buddleia "Lo & Behold" in the end. Wayside Gardens is the only online place I've seen them so far but it's a sad way to have to provide Buddleia for butterflies. They're so puny but if larger bush doesn't work out well a few of them in containers around the garden area is hopefully better than nothing.

Marg, The seeds for the reds I got from a trade. They are still quite small, and if they make it through this winter, I'll be surprised. I'll be keeping them in the holding bed over the winter with a good mulch. Since I got them from a trade, I'm waiting to see if they come true to put them in the ground so it might be next year by the time I do that. I'm surprised that your Buddleias don't make it. Do you wait long enough to determine they haven't made it through? Mine sometimes only surface in early June, but then they catch-up quickly. They are late risers. Bonnie, I instinctively knew I had that zonal thing wrong, but went against my better judgement. :O) Thanks for the correction. Appreciate it! My tops die back too, but last year one didn't. I let it grow. It went to 12 to 14 feet and was HUGE. But that's the last time I won't trim back. Out of 4 mature ones I have, it's THE one that died this past winter. One which is only 1.5 feet away is doing fine. Sorry to hear that you lost yours this past winter. I'll definitely have some seeds of the lavender if you want some. You too Marg! Would be nice to get seeds of that new one - you know the bi-colored one?!

Jim, all you need for the rose slug (the things chewing your holes) is to blast the leaves and undersides with a strong stream of water. That'll knock off the larvae, and eventually the good bugs (and birds) will come in to eat the larvae and you'll be back to balance. If you want to spray some insecticidal soap, you can do so when the weather isn't too hot, but I don't find I need to do that. By all means, don't use a "complete" insecticide or those combination sprays that have everything in them. That's overkill. The fungicide Braverichard is talking about is for blackspot, which may be part of why you've had that much leaf drop. It also may be heat or the process of settling in too, though, so be sure to water the plant deeply every couple of days if it's hot. Cynthia