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Euonymus alatus

wrighttwrightt Posts: 234
in Problem solving
My euonymus alatus  has shrivelling leaves and branches which then die. It was doing this before the heat wave so nothing to do with lack of water. Does anyone know what thee problem is, how to solve it or can I place a new one in its place. 

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Mine is a tree but always suffers from the heat.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    How old is this shrub? Even two to three year shrubs will suffer in the dryness and excess heat. Have you checked the branches to see if there are damaged areas? Many trees and some shrubs shed their leaves when under stress. 
  • wrighttwrightt Posts: 234
    The shrub is more than 15 years old but the problem started in March so it has nothing to do with the heat.
  • wrighttwrightt Posts: 234
    I forgot to say I have 3 other in another part of the garden. All are the same age and they are showing no symptoms.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    Did you check the bark and branches? Any breakages, or damage? I agree, it may not be heat stress, but a photograph of the leaves may help to give us an idea of the type of die-back. Are the branches where the leaves have shrivelled breaking off easily and very brittle?
  • wrighttwrightt Posts: 234
    Leaves just go brittle then the branch dies. When it first happened in March I cut the branches off and burnt them, then a few more branches did the same in April  and now the whole bush.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    It's so hard to say if you have not seen any damage on the branches, you may need to dig down into the soil to see what's happening there. It may be the roots have rotted away, therefore dying slowly. 
  • wrighttwrightt Posts: 234
    It hard to dig at the moment as we have had no rain for at least 6 weeks and on heavy clay ground is like concrete though it was not like this when the problem started. I think the whole shrub is now dead as all the leaves have shrivelled up. So I will dig it all out when I can.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    Yes no point digging right now. I do think you should leave it till next year in spring to see if it comes back. Dried up leaves doesn’t always signal death. It could be stress. Especially if you see no other signs on the branches. Just a thought.
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