The 5th edition of 'Australian Native Plants' by Wrigley and Fagg, advises that Adenanthos sericeus is unreliable on the humid east coast. I tried to grow one a year or so ago, did all the right things, but it died in late summer. I should point out that although summer temperatures here are a little cooler than in Sydney, we do experience mists at this time of year and, the combination of warmth and moisture isn't good for those plants which prefer drier surroundings. I really should have known better.

Could be a Buddleia leaf weevil, Cleopus japonicus, considered to be a bioloogical control for the invasiveness of butterfly bushes, particularly in NZ and Australia where the plants are noxious weeds. I am not aware of them being very common in the US but perhaps they are being employed for the same purpose (Buddleia is an invasive species on the west coast and beginning to become one in other areas). And the only garden weevil I am aware of that can fly!

I know! Which is why I bought 3 bushes. One of them, in my perennial bed gets bs late in the season but the other two get bs to the point that I am considering removing them. I don't have any trouble with my Kiss Me or Sunrise Sunset, Kashmir, Como Park or my Weeks rose Drop Dead Red. If you want a good hybrid tea style red rose Drop Dead red and Kashmir have been good in my bs magnet garden in humid hot SW Ohio at the height of summer. i have had good luck so far with all my Kordes roses and with Belinda's Dream ( touch wood).

Mary, Very often some nurseries, especially mom and pop establishments, will stick multiple cuttings in a pot, propagate them as one plant, but really are sometimes 3+ little starts in the same pot. The original owner of Chamblee Nursery, Mark, did this. I asked him if such roses I got from him would do good in the garden planted as is. He assured me that they will do fine. Time proved him absolutely right, much to my astonishment. When I dug up a Rose Rosette Disease afflicted Quietness a few years back, it was three bushes intermeshed at their roots and crown that pulled apart, fitting together like they were originally made of artists clay trying to be a modern art work. It as a huge, mature bush with a crown a foot across. I still have the crown. I think multiple cutting bushes start out because some varieties are difficult to get to take, so at least one will root, hopefully. There may have been an abundance of trmmings gotten at spring pruning that caused the multiple stem propagation practice....waste not....rather than compost them...who knows. Moses.