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Leggy hebe - please help!

northernwildflowernorthernwildflower Posts: 2
in Problem solving

Hi all, I live in north east England and I have a sick looking hebe. It’s been in the garden for at least two years now and has been thriving - it’s about 3ft tall and about the same wide. It’s usually very bushy and green and gets purple flowers on it. All of a sudden over December/early January it’s lost a lot of leaves and it’s looking very leggy. I’ve never seen it lose leaves like this before. Does anyone know why this might be? Is there anything I can do to save it, or will it probably die now? Thanks in advance image

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Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090

    I suspect it's just reacting to cold weather.  They are not reliably hardy below -5C.   Have you had a cold spell?  Has it been unusually dry over the spring and summer?  That can also make them drop leaves.

    I suggest you wait a while for temperatures to warm up and then feed it some blood, fish and bone in spring and make sure it isn't dry at the roots.  It should then recover.   Wait till all frosts have passed if you decide to prune it and then don't prune back too hard as they don't like it.   You must prune back to leaves, not bare stems.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • northernwildflowernorthernwildflower Posts: 2

    Thanks very much Obelixx, I will try the blood, fish and bone in the spring and see how it gets on. I suppose we have had a cold snap but I didn’t feel it had been any colder here than we’d normally have it in winter, but maybe I was wrong! It could well have got to -5C or below a couple of nights and we have had a bit of snow recently. 

    Thanks again image

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