Re: plants dying

Barb,

I know how hard it is to lose a plant, but don't blame yourself,
particularly if you've got a healthy specimen of same doing fine.
  
There are a gazillion bacterial and fungal spores out there, just waiting
for a plant to be stressed by any old thing - and the weather this year in
many parts of the US is certainly plant stressing - when they jump in and
finish the job.  The diseases they cause go under many names, but blights
and die back are common names for many of them (for woody plants).  I don't
know for a fact, but would bet that the mysteriously dying perennials are
being hit by the same kinds of problems, particularly if the gardens they
are in are in parts of the country that are experiencing the high,
unremitting heat and lack of rain that's happening this year.

Is your plant totally dead or just defoliated?  Do you notice any tiny
pimples, black spots, or other color spots, lesions, depressed or raised
circles or oozing on the twigs or branches (you have to look really closely
and a hand lens is helpful)?  Did the leaves start out with any brown or
yellow spots before they crisped up?  Any of these signs means the
likelihood of fungal or bacterial blights....not your fault unless you beat
it with a board, stomped on it and withheld all water.

Some of these bad guys don't show their worst until the second season they
live on their host - so it just could be that, if the plant is new, it was
stressed in the nursery and became vulnerable to a fungus or bacteria and
you just got the dubious pleasure of watching it croak.

I hate losing plants, but bet I've assisted hundreds of them to an early
date with the great compost heap in the sky....goes with gardening
territory.  Sometimes plants will die on you, despite all your tender
loving care.  Just means you've got room to put in a *new* one!

If you suspect any bacterial or fungal problems, and the plant is deader n'
a door nail, remove it and either burn or put in the trash - NOT the
compost - at your earliest convenience.  Clean up any dead fallen leaves or
twigs to prevent water splashing on them and spreading the spore to another
plant.  Then, either visit the closest nursery or get out your mail order
catalogs and pick a new plant to go in that spot....best way to cheer up
that I know of :-)

If, OTOH, your plant is NOT dead, remove the crisped up leaves and discard.
 Carefully check all branches and twigs and prune out any that look
suspicious (blackened or any of the above mentioned signs), water - don't
fertilize - and wait.  The plant may have the reserves to leaf out and
live...you never know.

To tell if it's dead, scrape a fingernail along a branch that's still
pliable.  If there is green just under the bark, it may still be alive.  If
not, or if the branches snap easily - it's dead.  To make sure, I prune off
branches section by section, one at a time, from tip in toward the trunk
and check for any signs of life until I've hit ground level.  Since these
are newly planted, it's not likely they will come back from the roots - but
some woody plants will do this - dunno about Clethera, haven't tried it
with mine:-)  If it's a large shrub, I wait a season before digging it out.
 Thought I'd lost a huge Kolkwitzia I'd had for years a few years ago - it
just withered away.  Well, I didn't get around to digging it out and after
a year, it started to sprout from the base (I'd cut it down to ground
level).  Now it's about 5' tall again and blooming, same as it used to
do.....seems healthy as a horse.   You can never tell with plants.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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Barb wrote:
 >I thought I was careful weeding! I can't imagine I'd have done enough
> damage to kill it.  Every leaf is toast.  I didn't think the sun could
> burn wet leaves like you described (what about those freaky summer
> showers when it's still sunny?) I just don't understand how one clethra
> plant is fine and the other is crispy when they're so close. 
>   It's so hard to lose a plant when you're starting a garden from
> scratch (house=new construction last year) and you have such hope.  I 
> take everyone's assurances about how big my perennials will grow to
> heart and I feel like I just killed this clethra.  weep. :(
> Any other ideas?  TIA
> Barb
> 
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