I have Royal Red,a seedling type from a friend, unknown left by previous owners,Pink Delight, and Dubonnet. I have lost a few BB's over the years while living in the same area - a Pink Delight and a Nanho Purple. Royal Red is NOT red, but more like a fuschia. It is now a year old and has come back fine. All my others are at least three years old or older, and I've had a lot of success. It it were me, I'd look for the largest size plant that you can find at a reasonable price. And just keep trying until you get one that likes where it's planted. Definitely mulch. I think if you can keep it over at least one winter, you'll stand a better chance of having it for a long time. I never trim mine back until I see new bottom growth in the spring - it may be as late as May. And, stay away from Nanho varieties. They are not hardy here in zone 5/6, so would probably not be hardy for you in zone 5. Linda

I haven't considered spider mites -- I'll have to check mine out and see if they are attacking them. With the dry, hot weather, I am seeing a TON of mites in the general landscape, on everything from weeds to trees. I've got about 40 butterfly bushes going now, so if mites like them I'm sure at least some of them will have them. I don't know what is up with the multiple posts -- I posted a reply on one of these forums the other day and it showed up 5 times. Of course, if these forums had a decent user interface like many do, we would have the ability to edit, to delete, etc. Funny, iVillage is owned by NBC/Universal, a very large company, and they can't manage to upgrade their software past the level of about 1995/1996 when I first discovered the Internet. I guess it's because they're broke and no one watches their network anymore?

I don't know how much you have already found out about yellow buddlejas, so forgive me if I am teaching my grandmother. Firstly, they are shrubs, not herbaceous perennials, so you might get more help over on the shrubs forum. Secondly, there are 2 likly candidates, Buddleja globosa and Buddleja x weyeriana. There are various named cultivars of each. Again, forgive me if you already know this but neither looks quite like B davidii in bloom. Globosa has spheres of yellow /orange flowers and x weyeriana has looser clumps of flowers arranged in lax racemes, but neither has the long inflorescences of davidii. So if you were imagining a standard-looking 'Butterfly Bush' but with yellow flowers that's not quite what you'd get. Both grow to the same sort of size as regular B davidii and respond to the same pruning treatment. Both are reputed to be slightly less hardy than B davidii. As to companion plants I'm not sure whether you mean things that would look good, or things that would have some sort of supposed mutual benefit. The first is a matter of taste and the second, IMO, would be irrelevant to Buddlejas. I suggest you Google the two named yellow species above and see what you think.

I have been growing buddleias for about 13 years now and have had all kinds practically and currently I have at least 30 bushes. I have to say that a lot depends on "location, location, location." And I think size makes a difference too. Or would number of blooms be a better way to say that? The other day I called my local nursery and ordered a "Honeycomb" to add some variety. I had a yellow one years ago and it seemed to get a fair amount of attention from the butterflies and I have had nanho blue and I currently have a nanho purple but in my yard they have not gotten much attention at all. In fact, I tried to dig out the purple recently but gave up because my back gave out. I have long since gotten rid of the nanho blue. At this point I have to say that the most popular buddleias are the Cornwall Blues, but they are quite full right now and are very prominent and that may be the real reason. My Pink Delight was very popular for a long time but died this year for some reason. It was very old. This year I added a bunch of new ones and they are still small but of those new ones the tigers have gone to the "Butterfly Heaven" even when it only had one bloom on it. My Attraction is popular too and all that leads me to say that it is most likely influenced by the location of the bush and the number of blooms. Let me know how your "Honeycomb" does. Almost all of the new ones I have added are the compact and dwarf varieties like "Miss Ruby", "Peacock" and "Blue Chip" which only supposedly reaches two feet. We shall see!!!! MY FAVORITES are "Purple Emperor", "Guinevere", and "Miss Ruby". But it remains to be seen what the butterflies think of them. Murray