Hi all!

The wife bought this plant 3 years ago and it was fine the first year. Small
blue flowers/yellow stamens flowering late spring. We live in south wales
valleys.

The plant is now about 2 ft high/wide and is in garden facing south and
west.

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away. Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present. Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

Any advice will be most welcome!

Laurence

On 28/4/07 16:53, in article ,
"Beeblebrox" wrote:

Hi all!

The wife bought this plant 3 years ago and it was fine the first year. Small
blue flowers/yellow stamens flowering late spring. We live in south wales
valleys.

The plant is now about 2 ft high/wide and is in garden facing south and
west.

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away. Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present. Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

They're usually pretty disease free though they're said to be susceptible to
honey fungus which I hope you haven't got! This sends out sort of black
boot laces under the soil and particularly likes old, diseased wood.
http://tinyurl.com/35ejel
You say other plants look okay but in the last few years have any suddenly
collapsed and died?
The other question is, have you pruned it hard back at any time because they
don't like that much.



Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
Join uk.rec.gardening instead.
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Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
(remove weeds from address)

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...

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Sacha


Garden Banter does not need your permission :-))

Live with it :-))


Mike

--
.................................................. ..............
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'THE' Association if you served in the Electrical Branch of the Royal Navy
www.rneba.org.uk

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
On 28/4/07 16:53, in article ,
"Beeblebrox" wrote:

Hi all!

The wife bought this plant 3 years ago and it was fine the first year.
Small
blue flowers/yellow stamens flowering late spring. We live in south wales
valleys.

The plant is now about 2 ft high/wide and is in garden facing south and
west.

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there
are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away.
Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present.
Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or
should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

They're usually pretty disease free though they're said to be susceptible
to
honey fungus which I hope you haven't got! This sends out sort of black
boot laces under the soil and particularly likes old, diseased wood.
http://tinyurl.com/35ejel
You say other plants look okay but in the last few years have any suddenly
collapsed and died?
The other question is, have you pruned it hard back at any time because
they
don't like that much.



Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
Join uk.rec.gardening instead.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
(remove weeds from address)


Thanks Sacha for the quick response!

The only pruning it's had is to remove the dead bits and we've not seen
anything like the honey fungus (I've looked at the link). Nothing has died
in the garden either.

The mystery continues...

Beeb

On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 16:39:24 GMT, "Beeblebrox"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 28/4/07 16:53, in article ,
"Beeblebrox" wrote:

Hi all!

The wife bought this plant 3 years ago and it was fine the first year.
Small
blue flowers/yellow stamens flowering late spring. We live in south wales
valleys.

The plant is now about 2 ft high/wide and is in garden facing south and
west.

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there
are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away.
Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present.
Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or
should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

They're usually pretty disease free though they're said to be susceptible
to
honey fungus which I hope you haven't got! This sends out sort of black
boot laces under the soil and particularly likes old, diseased wood.
http://tinyurl.com/35ejel
You say other plants look okay but in the last few years have any suddenly
collapsed and died?
The other question is, have you pruned it hard back at any time because
they
don't like that much.



Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
Join uk.rec.gardening instead.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
Garden Banter does not have permission to use my posts.
(remove weeds from address)


Thanks Sacha for the quick response!

The only pruning it's had is to remove the dead bits and we've not seen
anything like the honey fungus (I've looked at the link). Nothing has died
in the garden either.

The mystery continues...

Beeb

See my earlier post of the 27th.(Dead ceanothus) and Nic Maclaren's
reply. It sound like yours has suffered the same problem as mine but
less extreme. While I'm not entirely convinced by his answer, we did
have a very wet February down in Cornwall and you probably had the
same in S.Wales.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Beeblebrox wrote:

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away. Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present. Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

I'm not sure it's necessarily a problem: many people (me included!)
worry about their plants too much and want to do something when the
plant itself is perfectly capable of taking care of business.
In your case it could be many things but it's hard to tell. Do you think
you could post a picture somewhere to give us an idea?

Without seeing more, it could be a very natural process by which more
branches at the top mean less light at the bottom and so the tree
doesn't bother with growing leaves there, concentrating on doing that
where they will be most productive.
The one in the garden used to grow taller and taller, spreading in width
as well. As it did the bottom and inside branches grew to look like they
were dead, and those that were simply fell (really not many).

When faced with something like your case, I try my best to keep the
shears away and wait for a while: after a few months the branch usually
shows very clearly whether it's dead or not.
I'd rather leave something dead on that cut something still alive.


Greg
--

You may ask yourself, how do I work this?

No ficus = no spam

"Gregoire Kretz" wrote in message
...
Beeblebrox wrote:

It now has some dead braches with dried up brown leaves. However there
are
green leaves on some stems branching from the dead looking areas.

Much of the bush looks healthy and we've cut some dead stuff away.
Further
dead areas have appeared so I suspect some disease is present.
Surrounding
plants don't seem to be affected.

Can anyone suggest the reasons for the problem and perhaps a cure? Or
should
we just give it up as not worth pursuit?

I'm not sure it's necessarily a problem: many people (me included!)
worry about their plants too much and want to do something when the
plant itself is perfectly capable of taking care of business.
In your case it could be many things but it's hard to tell. Do you think
you could post a picture somewhere to give us an idea?

Without seeing more, it could be a very natural process by which more
branches at the top mean less light at the bottom and so the tree
doesn't bother with growing leaves there, concentrating on doing that
where they will be most productive.
The one in the garden used to grow taller and taller, spreading in width
as well. As it did the bottom and inside branches grew to look like they
were dead, and those that were simply fell (really not many).

When faced with something like your case, I try my best to keep the
shears away and wait for a while: after a few months the branch usually
shows very clearly whether it's dead or not.
I'd rather leave something dead on that cut something still alive.


Greg
--

You may ask yourself, how do I work this?

No ficus = no spam

Thanks all for the advice. I'll wait a month or so and see what develops.

Beeb