On 20/6/08 18:11, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:25:33 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 20/6/08 08:55, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:28:38 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

We have a Grevillea on the corner of a well drained, raised bed. It's been
there for many years but now is turning brown and dying off in patches here
and there. They're such good value plants and flower on and off for such a
long time that we're rather sad at the thought of losing this one. Is
anyone familiar with gradual dieback in these?

I lost one earlier this year that had shown signs of dieback last
year, after having previously been quite healthy (G. Canberra, IIRC).
I attributed it either to salt gale damage or the wet summer in
conjunction with too rich soil. Hadn't thought of phytophthora though.
AIUI phytophthora flourishes in warm wet conditions. I lost several
ceanothus and one or two other shrubs last year which went in much the
same way, so perhaps it's in my soil. A camellia planted in place of
the grevillea is looking decidedly poorly :-(

Is there any relatively simple way of sterilising soil infected with
phytophthora, available to the amateur (Jeyes Fluid rings a bell)?
Alternatively, what shrubs are resistant to it, do you know?

Chris, have you checked for honey fungus?

Er...no, good point, although no sign of fruiting bodies. I'll check
for bootlaces under the bark.

I really do hope it's not that and it probably isn't. But when things start
to keel over next door to one another, it's certainly something to consider,
at least and to check for. The bootlaces will be in the ground. I know
that when it was found in a previous garden of mine, the first sign was
these mysterious deaths of otherwise healthy plants. One day fine, next day
not so fine, a day or five later, gone.
The RHS site is pretty informative, I think:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile...ney_fungus.asp

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online but not completed - shop to come and some mild tweaking
to do!)