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Help with my leycestria
roo3471
Posts: 2
I noticed last week my Leceystria had a few branches which seemed weak and hanging further over than the rest of the plant. I wondered if it was lacking water, as had been a bit forgetful in that area that week. Gave some and then we've had a few days of quite a lot of rain at different times.
Gone out today and some branches have leaves/flowers/fruit brown and dead. Any ideas what the problem is or what to do? Never had any issues last few years and I was a lot less thoughtful to my plants then!
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Posts
Hi roo
Can you tell us a bit more about your Leycestria ... is it a Leycestria formosa or another type?
Where is it growing?
A photo or two would be good ... you can upload photos by clicking on the camera icon - if it doesn't work try reducing the size of the photo
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It needs much more water ... it's a large lush plant in a sunny spot with a hedge and other plants around it all of which compete with it for water. The hedge probably creates a rain shadow so even when it does rain the Lon. formosa doesn't benefit from much of it. Coupled with that we had a very dry winter, spring and early summer so the soil some way below the surface is also very dry.
I would give it at 2 buckets full of water at least three times a week until mid September
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
As dove mentioned, it looks like it needs a damn good soaking to rejuvinate it amidst all the surrounding competition for H2O.
Leycesteria is a seriously formidable plant and it may appear to be on "death's doorstep" but it will more than likely bounce back to its former glory. They are ideally pruned in early Spring (even don to 6 inches) but in your case it would be worth cutting off any dead branche ASAP.