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Distorted young leaves on Perennials.

LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
in Problem solving
On a few plants the new growth has ended up tightly curled and distorted preventing further growth - it's affected Salvia 'Purple Rain' (pictured), Geranium x cantabrigiense, and Sedum 'Matrona'. They were divided and moved around quite a bit over winter. The more I think about it, the more I think that some sort of bacteria or fungus has entered the plants through the torn tissue after division (and being moved around several times subsequent to that). Does this sound likely or could there be another reason?

May be an image of outdoors
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2021
    Whatever it is it doesn't look like a salvia ... it looks more like a tree or shrub (unless that's hugely magnified) and a nearly dead one at that.  I'd hoik it out and burn it if you have no close neighbours and it's permitted where you live ... otherwise it's a candidate for the council garden waste bin. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Definitely Salvia Purple Rain - there's a healthy one here, which shows how bad the distortion was:

    May be an image of nature
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Here's the Geranium, with and without the issue.
     


    May be an image of nature
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I just remembered a post someone had made about similar looking shoots from their Dahlias, and after a bit of searching I think I might have a potential answer: Leafy gall / RHS Gardening
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I can't see any of the salvia pics.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    It might be frost damage?  Are the affected ones in a more exposed area?

    And if it is a salvia, then I would give it a few weeks before ditching it.  They often have their tops killed off over winter and then re-emerge from the base.

    Its been such a strange year for frosts that it’s difficult to see what is due to that, and what is due to other causes
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698

    Fire said:
    I can't see any of the salvia pics.
    Are they not displaying? The first two pics are of the Salvia. Should have soft fuzzy leaves as per the second pic, whereas the first pic shows the stunted tiny growths of the affected plant.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited May 2021
    Not displaying on Firefox. I can see them on the Brave browser. How odd.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    edited May 2021
    I don’t think it’s leafy gall. If you can rule out fertiliser overdose or toxic drift from a neighbour’s spraying, if it has been cold and dry where you are, I would guess its the weather. Freezing cold, drying winds and rapid temperature swings will cause severe drought stress, which we tend not to think of as happening in winter. But it does. I have cold, dry winters as a matter of course and have to water every few weeks [throughout winter]. Interruption of the flow of water from the xylem to the plant cells can cause morphological and physiological changes, such as reduced leaf size and sometimes distorted growth. The plants that you have divided and shuggled about were under a bit of stress as a result of that, but would ordinarily bounce back from that. They may have just had a double whammy - whacked when they were most vulnerable. I would cut back to new growth, water them well and wait.

    I have Salvia Verticillata Purple Rain and can vouch that Loxely is not telling porkies, it’s definitely a salvia. 😊 Here is mine just now, on the left of Salvia Nemorosa Caradonna:


    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • valerierobertsvalerieroberts Posts: 726
    Would it be a good idea to spray and eliminate any leaf sucking bugs just in case and then feed with liquid seaweed tonic. If it was mine that is what I would be doing. Valerie 
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