Spider mites lurve them some buddleia, particularly if it's good and drought stressed. I've been able to control SMs on buddleia by (1) making sure the plant itself gets appropriate irrigation and (2) hosing it off daily with a pretty good spray of water, being careful to hit the underside of the leaves, for a week or 10 days. That seems to interrupt the lifecycle of the SMs and they'll remain at a managable dull roar if you make sure the plant gets enough water.

Being root bound is not necessarily a bad thing but potting up slightly larger will give the plant a chance to grow some new roots and provide it with nutrients from some new potting mix. How big is the pot the plant is in now? Usually you would only want to go up one size. If you can easily knock off some old soil do that but if it is all roots you might want to just leave it alone or perhaps soak it in some water to remove some of the old soil if it looks bad or if there seems to be mineral deposits from hard water buildup over the years. A good potting mix to use is soil, orchid bark and perlite. Taking cuttings is very easy and rooting them this time of year should be no problem. Simply find a healthy vine and take a cutting. If the vine is fairly long you can cut into pieces about a foot long and then plant them with a lower leaf node in contact with or just buried in the soil. Don't worry about removing the lower leaves just trim the stem below the leaves so that it is a couple of inches long before you plant it. Keep the cuttings moist and humid, a plastic freezer bag or an old aquarium is a great help to keep the potted cuttings happy but if you have high humidity in your area it may be fine without. Once you see new roots have developed the plant will be ready to come out of the freezer bag but I always wait a little while longer just to be sure there is a good root system to provide moisture to the cutting. Do you have a digital camera? Photos would help tremendously if you could show us the plant and the pot/roots etc. Mike

Can you post a larger image? The dramatic lights & shadows, plus the small image size, make it difficult to see detail.

Well, better start using more water because thy ran short a while ago. You can obtain local info from your county's Extension Service office. Find your county's office with this map: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/ Here is a link that might be useful: Locate your county's office