"Alison" o.uk wrote in
message ...

"Craig McWha" wrote in message
...
Hi from a newbie!

As I've stated, i am a newbie, both to this ng and gardening, so I hope
some
genius out there may be able to help me.

I have a plant(name unknown,sorry) in my back garden that looks on its
last
legs. It is a red,tall leafy number(rubbish description,sorry). It's
stems
and leaves have started to wilt dramatically, but with no discolouration
of
the leaves.

Does anybody know how I can attempt to revive this plant, or is it gone
beyond that?

Thanks in advance, Mac

Hi Mac

Welcome to the group :-)

Yep the description *is* rubbish so it's kinda hard to give advice without
knowing a little more. Were/are the leaves red, or the flower? How
tall -
0.5m, 2m? Could it have been a spring bulb? A crown imperialis is just
under a metre tall and has red (or orange or yellow) bell type flowers
hanging down from the top, sort of pineapplish. Or it could be a euphorbia
like Redwing or Great Dixter that's badly in need of a water. Is it near
a
big tree that has just leafed up? Bear in mind that we've had some fairly
windy weather (and warmish) and plants loose lots of water in these
conditions - just cos it isn't hot n sunny doesn't mean you don't have to
check for watering needs.

Wilting without leaf discolouration seems like dehydration but if that's
unlikely it could be that something like vine weevils or leather jackets
have chomped on its roots. I suppose it depends how much you like the
plant.
There are nematodes that deal with these grubs if you are organically/soil
friendly minded, or chemicals. If the plant isn't too large, maybe you
could dig it up with a good rootball and see if its roots look knawed, or
even if there are nasty culprits doing their worst in the soil. If you
really like the plant and the roots are not completely knawed away then
maybe you could put it in a large pot and give it some TLC for a bit (and
treat with Provado if nasty vine weevil grubs are present).

HTH and good luck
--A





Thanks Alison for the advice. I would know the name of the plant but my
girlfriend thinks keeping the little planting tags is "tacky"! We planted it
about three weeks ago, and neither of us can remember the name of it!

Anyway it is red leaf, red stem, about thirty cm tall (grows to a maximum of
two metres).

Regards, Mac