go to the library. Its a very popular book, I'm sure you can order it if your local branch doesn't have it. I quit buying gardening books - ran out of space. I can synop-size Tracy's book for you: *Cut everything back before June 30th. *Compost and mulch your plants after they start poking out of the ground. There are individual plants that need to wait on clean up till early spring like baptisia, sedum, Buddleia, hardy mums, penstemons. Basically things that could get water in the crowns and rot. * Wait to cut back lavenders till they begin to leaf out * prune azaleas, rhodos and lilacs immediately after flowering to avoid cutting off next years buds. * She hates mushy spent daylily flowers - you must snap them off. * Kill slugs with Sluggo or vinegar or ammonia Its a great book - check eBay also.

I almost gave up on Ceanothus americanus, but I persisted. I don't remember how many I planted before one made it, but now it is several years old and looking great. It gets nibbled on, but I've never found any caterpillars. I found a blue cultivar--not native to US--called Marie Bleu and planted it next to the NJ tea. It is very beautiful in the spring with blue flowers. Both are thriving and worth the struggle to get them going. If I were to do it again, I would plant several of the NJ Teas to have a mass planting. They are not a large shrub. Love that the leaves were used as a replacement for tea by the colonists!

I have quite a few butterfly bushes-it took me several years before they were reliable, but this is what I have: One large 'Black Knight' that is now sprouting from the base. I have not yet pruned. I wait until late spring to prune (I'm a little later than normal due to travel & illness). I think I read that some plants store carbs in their stems to carry them through the winter. I have a 'Border Beauty' that is growing nicely. I have 2 varigated 'Harlequin' bushes that do very well. Then I have a dozen or so self seeded bushes that are small but coming along. I did get quite a few that sowed themselves along the side of the garage in rocky soil last year. They are all up again this year-one of them is white, which is odd since I don't have any white ones that I actually planted. These get absolutely no care at all-no food, water, pruning-nothing. Yet they are there again now. I don't add any extra mulch for any of my bushes. If they can't survive the winter on their own, then I'd treat them as annuals, since I love them and would have at least one even if I had to replant every year. Fortunatly I don't have to.

We have excellent, reliable snow cover, but I have never heard of buddleia surviving fall pruning here. In fact, we are constantly fielding questions from visitors who all want to know why their buddlei died and in every case, they pruned in fall. In our climate, it is sometimes June before the first leaves appear, so too frequently gardeners pull it out when it is still alive. After the first leaves appear, it grows extremely fast. I was pleased this week to find Buddlei 'Silver Anniversary' blooming merrily away in our field. I had forgotten it was there and it has survived the two harshest winters I have ever know, twitch grass, sundry other weeds and a total lack of water and pruning.