In article ,
Malcolm wrote:

We have a wild honeysuckle growing in a tub, c.14 inches across and 18
inches deep, which climbs up a trellis to about 12 feet high each year.
This year, it grew as vigorously as usual and was smothered in blossom
then, about three weeks ago, we noticed the leaves were turning brown
even though the flowers, initially, didn't seem to be affected. However,
they soon were and the whole plant has now gone brown and the leaves and
flowers are falling off. It has, to all intents and purposes, apparently
died, though cutting with secateurs reveals the centre of the stems are
still green.

There's nothing contaminating the tub as the weeds in it are still
flourishing (!), so is it old age? No book I have discusses any diseases
of honeysuckle, only mentioning aphids which it didn't have.

Don't you believe it. There are lots of things that affect woody
plants while leaving others unaffected. My bet would be on some
'fungal' infection (equally probably a slime mould, bacterium or
other unicellular organism), possibly following on from damage
caused by the weather. I have seen such deaths before in quite
a few species of plant, and there wasn't anything more to show.
And, of course, the fact that you can see mycelium on dead roots
is no evidence that the fungus was the cause of death, given the
speed of earthborne fungal infection in summer.

The above is a tad more scientific than waving my hands and calling
it the result of the amount of miasma that we have had this year,
but not a lot.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.