Have you cut it back to stubs and looked for new growth from the base?

I've been watching mine and the same here. I have two and one looks pretty dead. Interestingly, the one that was three feet tall and prolific, which I planted last spring, is the mostly dead one. There's one little leaf at the base, the same little leaf that's been there for the last month not doing anything lol. The small one which I planted in fall and never bloomed and was about 6-8 inches, survived, eight feet away. That has nice basal growth. So disappointing when, as you say, everything is so expensive.

I bought mine at Garden Crossings. I think it was/is about $22 for a small pot, which is expensive but seemingly in line with prices at other reliable online nurseries.

Actually, now that I typed all this, I think mine are Miss Ruby, not MIss Molly lol, but I guess it's the same "family"!

:)

Dee

i know you are in a much higher one.. but mine often died to the ground in my ground freeze mi ...

i agree it might be a bit early.. to give up on something that can comeback from the roots...

i think we need some general updates on your moving and all ...

ken

I have a lil' Flutterby dwarf buddleia in my front yard, Tutti Fruitti. It is lavishly leafed out, but Miss Molly in the back yard is stark naked. No sign of leaves at the base, of course I've been checking. So the front yard has its swooping swerving narrow bed cutting through the top part of the lawn, with 7 Japanese hollies (Soft Touch). I recently inserted seven 4" diameter clay pipes from a salvage store upright between the hollies, at varying heights and planted different flowering perennial succulents in each one, to add a bit of color. At the end of one side, there's a Magic Carpet dwarf spirea and its buddleia companion next to it. The porch has a window box on the railing and a 4 hook standing shepherd's crook. That holds a hummingbird feeder, a basket of verbena, and a hanging strawberry plant. On both sides of the porch, I made a semi circular bed up against the house. To continue getting light through the basement windows, I kept the residents of the beds short: a couple of heuchies and a St. John's wort plant. The other semicircular bed has 2 gorgeous dwarf spireas, Neon Flash and Candy Corn, both thriving. The side porch has a magnificent hanging fuschia (I made the macrame holder myself), a railing window box of calibrachoa, dwarf snaps, etc. I found a small sturdy table in the garden shed and put that on the side porch to hold a large strawberry pot. That holds 2 colors of caladium on top, plus pockets of pink or purple petunia, bronze leaf pink wax begonia, and torenia, in keeping with the shady spot. I put the whole thing on a lazy Susan so I could rotate it. I put up a white vinyl privacy fence around the back yard and put up 2 x 4' cedar raised beds around the inner perimeter. I also put two 2 x 4' raised beds alongside the garden shed on the sunny side, and mounted some merchandise grid from a salvage store on the side as trellis. My Fruity Petals climbing rose is covered in blooms. Waiting for Tropical Skies to do so as well. The sunny side beds have echinacea plants, a nandina (Firepower) which is leafed out at last, a My Monet purple weigela blooming its head off in a galvanized tub, a couple of different dwarf crape myrtles, monarda, Rudbeckia, and a few veggie sets. The shady side raised beds are stuffed with gorgeous hostas, heuchies, Japanese painted ferns, columbines, and some new pulmonaria I got from a local gardener. The dwarf crape myrtle in its separate stone circle in the front yard is also leafing out nicely. Looking forward to its flowering. And the 55' bed I hewed out alongside the driveway has 12 different roses, almost all budded up or blooming, yay. So I've been a very busy lady, turning a crabgrass farm into a properly planted yard. Pictures will come, just too busy to take some. Waiting for the patio to get a drain, so it's not picturesque back there right now.

Good news! I found a fine new Miss Molly at Home Depot. They must have just gotten a shipment, as they had at least a dozen Miss Molly shrubs which were a good 18-24" high and quite well bushed out and blooming. Best part--they were only $29. I picked out what looked to be the pick of the litter. Will plant her tomorrow.

Should I completely change the soil in the large planter the former Miss Molly was in, in case there was some sort of bug or pathogen responsible for the first Molly's demise?

Aha! you're growing it in a planter. MUCH more likely not to survive the winter. I think we all assumed it was growing in the ground. It died because the roots got too cold.

Even in a planter, zone 7 should not be too cold for a buddleia to survive winter. Typically, it is wet winter soils that do them in, rather than the cold.

And here is the new Miss Molly, in a new, very thick-walled terracotta planter.