"K" wrote in message
...
Ivan writes

Fair enough I saw on the telly that bees are particularly attracted to
honeysuckle and lavender plants, so I went to our local garden centre and
purchased a 'Lonicera americana' honeysuckle which I was informed was
particularly good, at the time I did notice that a couple of the leaves
looked a little suspect (as in photo) but thought that once I got it into
some decent soil with a couple of handfuls of bonemeal (as seen on TV)
everything would be OK, however whilst it still continues to grow apace
the leaves still look far from healthy, whilst the stems in places appear
to have a greyish coating.

That's likely to be mildew. Make sure you keep it well watered in dry
weather - mildew is worse if the plants are stressed by dry soil.

Not sure what's wrong with the honeysuckle. It doesn't look terminal (you
still have a lot of healthy leaves), and it may just have been in the
container for too long (if that's the case, then that is a garden centre
to avoid in the future, if you have an alternative).

|
Also a lavender that I purchased at same time started off wonderfully but
that too now appears to be on the wane with some of the heads now
beginning to turn a brownish colour..


To be honest, I couldn't see much wrong in the picture. How long has the
lavender been in flower? Are you sure it's not just that the flowers are
coming to the end of their natural term?


|

Thanks for your input, I have kept the honeysuckle well watered and wonder
if there's any kind of spray or treatment I can use to counteract the
problem? surprisingly there seems to be very little if anything on the net
relating to diseases wr to honeysuckle, maybe because they think that
because it's such a hardy plant it's more than capable of looking after
itself.
With regards the lavender I've just nipped out and checked the plastic label
that came with it, which tells me that the blossom time is 'June and July'
so you may well be right, however I somehow imagined that lavender remained
in flower for a lot longer than that.. like I said I'm pretty new to all of
this)
|

Ivan