I live in Tennessee (Zone 7). My Blue Chip started blooming a few weeks ago. I was late planting this out into the flower beds. I had a busy summer. I ordered so many plants that I couldn't get everything done! Anyways..I planted it in full sun and a month later it started blooming like crazy. I've seen butterflies all over it too. I think it's a great plant. I hate the big, ugly gnarly ones my mom grows with the ugly trunks. I understand why people grow them, but they are not the most attractive plants to me. This Blue Chip is a vast improvement. They should win an ward for this plant. I'm taking some more cuttings tomorrow evening after work! I'll post some photos of it in a new thread so you can see my cute little plant in all its glory.

Update - First, thank you ALL for your suggestions & comments. I certainly learned alot (I always do @ GW!). Anyway, further inspection indicated probably not a massive infestation of spider mites (a honeysuckle on other side of yard had 'em & I'm constantly pulling off webs), but jusst in case I sprayed the heck out of the under-side of the leaves w/the hose sprayer. Also, I fed it some fish emulsion plant food. THEN, a friend of ours who is a garden-specialist type (yes, there's a label, but I forget it - maybe landscape architect? I'm not sure) - was over for dinner tonight & he said ... doesn't look like a pest b/c no brown spots (except a couple leaves - so he compared them for me) ... and it does look like HEAT distress & lack of water. He said the yellow bottom leaves look like normal leaf drop. But, the top, newer growth that looks like "spinach" (my new term for the very puckered mangled look), probably got heat distress during that heat wave and/or just before it. He said that pests can cause that, but given the condition of the bush & how it looks, it was probably just heat & lack of water. Just thought I'd share the info & update in case anyone in the future does & search & is wondering. :) He said it should bloom ok. All the Best, Tree

Dancer, my yard is absolutely crammed full of salvia, rosemary, milkweed and lavender. My backyard hums I have so many honeybees. I also have a large blue morning glory vine on my back fence that goes down to my lower yard (yes, yes, I know, I hate the stuff since I have to keep it in check with a machete, but my hubby loves the big blue flowers), and it is full of busy carpenter bees. I am in my yard gardening all the time up against all these plants and have never been stung. I have to be careful not to go out barefoot (our pool is out back, so sometimes that's not possible), in case I accidentally step on a bee, so we do watch where we walk, but the bees are very busy doing their jobs, and rarely if ever bother me. Once in a great while, a honeybee will try to rest on me, but I just move away. I, too, used to be afraid of bees, but when we moved to this new home, I realized I had better get over it, quick! Buddleia will attract both butterflies and honeybees. Not so much carpenter bees, as Renee mentioned. I see the carpenter bees over on my morning glories almost exclusively, as well as my Brug, and rarely over on the lavender. They actually, are much less likely to approach me than the honeybees. I was walking to get the mail yesterday, and my neighbor's large buddleia bush was visible over their retaining wall. It was very busy with Monarchs, Viceroys and honeybees in about equal proportions. And, there are some newer buddleias available that stay a little neater, and don't grow into monsterous, gangly bushes. I do love their flowers, though, they are quite lovely and the butterflies really do love them. You might want to also think about planting passaflora, as that is the host plant for the Viceroy butterfly. Mine looks pretty tattered between the snails and the Viceroy catepillars, but most of it is hidden with the Morning Glory vine that it grows with. And, it is quite a site to see 40 or 50 Viceroys flitting about the fence in front of our patio! Patty S.

The peony is the "bouchela" cultivar. The clay is pretty thick and heavy--there are rocks deeper down. I thought that the peony likes it very fertile and quick draining. I was planning to have 6 in. where I mix equal parts clay with potting soil in the bottom, then use primarily potting soil at the top 6 in. (the entire depth of the bed will be 12 in.) At least it won't be a major shock... Re: the bird of paradise, this one is a dwarf, and has been very unhappy in the pot-soil supplemented clay soil that it's sitting in. I suspect the problem is the poor drainage...This is partly the reason why I was thinking of starting the peony off on potting soil. The peony has been sitting under the hot Napa sun when I saw it at the nursery, and I've kept it under the sun for the past couple of days while I was trying to figure out where I want to site my raised bed. But do you think it will do better in the "shade"? "Shade" is sun until 2 p.m. Would that be enough? Wouldn't it be cold during the winter in the "shade." This corner of the yard gets really cold during the winter--what with the less sun and the windchill--our yard's pretty windy. Lil