Hi everyone,

Here's our tale of joy and woe:

We have a 3 bamboo plants growing in pots on our glass paneled, north-west facing, 2nd floor balcony. We've had them about 2-3 years. I can't quite remember what type they are but they are clump-forming about 1 meter tall and quite bushy at the top, with bright green leaves and yellow stems.

We repotted them into bigger planters (troughs, 30cm wide by 35cm deep) spring before last (2008) and they absolutely thrived, so lush, bushy and bright green. When we repotted them we incorporated controlled release fertiliser pellets and water retaining gel in the compost.

This year however the leaves started going brown and black and there are only very few green leaves. We had a massive infestation of greenfly on all three in the spring but this was sorted with the introduction of ladybird larvae. I'm aware that they refresh their leaves but there does seem to be a massive amount of leaf drop.

The pots are free draining and they have been watered to be damp but not wet. Here in Manchester we have had a few 'BBQ summer' days but nothing Saharan.

Having looked at various posts here and elsewhere we think we've done everything right upto now but are now unsure what to do next.

Any ideas what could be wrong? And any advice on what we can do now to improve the situation if we can?

We don't want to admit that they maybe dying and there is nothing we can do!

Many thanks in advance for your help.
J&D