This is a b. lindleyana. Leaves turning yellow. Blooms are finishing up, but more are ready to go. Some blooms are a bit spindly compared to a month ago, but this is the plant's first year. The moisture meter tells me the surface is moist, about 5" below the surface is wet, and at the bottom of the pot its medium moist. The pot is resin sitting on an upside down clay saucer. I think its overwatered and am thinking I should drill some holes at the bottom of the sides for better drainage. Potted in MG "moisture control" mix. Not sure the "moisture control" is worth the money. The shot of the root area is really fuzzy, but there is new green growth there. TIA for any help, and especially for reassurance if all is well.

Yellowing of leaves means it's probably getting too much water. Can you plant it or repot? Resin keeps a lot of water in. How ofter do you water it and how much sun does it get?

I agree, looks like to much water. And I wouldn't use moisture control potting mixes for buddleja, they are drought tolerant once established. I would also cut off any blooms coming on until the plant gets established. I also agree about getting it out of the pot and into the ground.

I sure wouldn't use Moisture Control potting mix for that plant. It really holds onto too much water, so unless you're growing water lovers like Cannas or gingers it would be really easy to overwater. Also if it's outside, and you get rain you can't control how much water it gets. Oh, you're in California, so have you still had rain?

Also, one of the yellow leaf shots above has dark veins. What have you been fertilizing with?

Ok. In order. Celia - I can repot in clay or wood, planting in the ground is not going to happen. I water when its dry about two inches below the surface. Lynn, I'll cut off the rest of the blooms and repot with something other than the MG. Elaine, I fertilized once when I planted it with fish emulsion, and I think again when it started to bloom. What do the dark veins mean? Is it terminal?

Pale between dark veins usually means a nutritional deficiency. It looks as if it is on older leaves rather than younger which in general means magnesium deficiency. You can fix that temporarily with Epsom salts. It should benefit from a more general fertilizer as well that includes all the essential nutrients.

What are the cut off stems in the pot?

Cut off stems are from zinnias I took out yesterday. I'll be digging around in there today.

The pot looks small for such a large shrub (by potential, not your particular specimen in its' current state.) And being black, it's going to get unnecessarily hot when the sun shines on it.

Your shrub looks like the seedy/weedy kind my Mom got that we decided to evict from her yard. There were a LOT of sprouts showing up. I would encourage you to seek a sterile cultivar to avoid that frustration.

Progress report: I got the zinnia stubs and roots out. The soil felt dry to my hand, and the moisture meter confirmed that. At the bottom it registered just barely moist, and I confirmed that by digging down and getting my bare hands into it. What's the diff between yesterday and today? I don't know, but the moisture meter may not be as accurate as I would like - gotta get my hands in it I guess. So much for manicures. I added fresh mix and a balanced fert and just enough water to mix it in down to about three inches. I can paint the pot a lighter color, but that's the best I can do for it now. Took off all the blooms and I'll keep them off for a while to see if the yellow and dark veining gets any better.

I think one mistake I've made is to adopt the "experts" idea of using coffee filters to cover the holes. The filters get clogged with wet soil and bulge out and actually seem to retain water rather than let it pass. To the extent that I can I've turned every pot I can on its side enough to punch holes in the coffee filters. This one is too heavy so I'll go ahead and drill into the low sides. The BB root ball was actually dry. No substitute for bare hands, is there?

Don't forget a little bit of balanced fert, Carol. Plus a sprinkle of Epsom salts will help that yellowing as well.

Oh, I forgot. The BB roots I uncovered were white and felt firm, not mushy, so maybe .... If it doesn't get better by next Thursday I'll haul it out of there and start it over. Thanks for all the help.

Please keep us posted on how it does.

One week update. I took off all the yellow leaves that I could see from the porch. Left the lighter leaves that weren't observable from there to see what would happen. So far the yellowish leaves are greening up, the soil is dry down to about 7-8". The stems feel firm, not squooshy. The tips of some of the leaves are browning up - is that part of the overwatering, or something else to deal with?

My watering plan is to stop using the hose altogether and water this thing from a pitcher (2 litre). A soon as any water appears at the new holes I'll stop watering at once. Then wait for it to dry out again. It seems to enjoy its current dry status - there's no drooping or wilted looking places: