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Graham Thomas honeysuckle constantly mildewed

dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
in Problem solving
Has anybody else got this problem with theirs?
It was planted in Spring last year.
Loads of leaf growth this year and a massive leap in height. Has never suffered water stress. It isn’t tightly packed either (I've been told they like air circulation).
About half the leaves have fallen off after suffering mildew.
I’ve sprayed with an anti fungal, but it didn’t help much.
Its on an east facing wall, feet in the shade and only gets sun until 1, which is what I thought honeysuckles preferred.
It look fab until about May.

I’d really appreciate any tips, as quite frankly it looks tatty and rather ugly, in spite of the fact it has hundreds of flowers in bud and opening.
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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Can you post some photos please, to give us a clue. 

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





  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    ok will do tomorrow - bit dark out there… 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    😊 👍 

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





  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Here you go, @Dovefromabove 😊 I hope my rubbish old phone doesn’t let me down.
    There are tonnes of flowers, but the leaves just keep dropping with mildew. 
    May have to go out there and spray later.
    Thing is, the higher ones are hard to reach.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited June 2021
    I think it’s probably much too dry against that wall and in what looks like full sun. Try giving it two buckets full of water every other day … from now until the end of September. Start again in early March. pour it on slowly so that the water soaks into the soil rather than running off the surface. 

    I love Lon. Graham Thomas  … ours is on a northfacing fence and us regularly watered … in hot dry spells like at present I use a soaker hose for a couple of hours in the evening


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





  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Wow, yours is amazing!
    Ours looked like that until about mid May, then the mildew started.

    I have been watering it regularly, with about 2 cans of water at a time, every day that it was sunny.

    We also had unremitting rain throughout May, and it doesn’t have much competition so would have hopefully taken in a lot of that.

    It is actually east facing - it gets sun higher up, but its base is in the shade even in the morning. The whole plant is in the shade from about 12.30 onwards, at the moment.

    Is that not enough shade?

    thanks.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Ours is huge … we planted it about 7 years ago and now it covers three fence panels in width. But all apart from the top of it is in the shade almost all of the day. 
    I wonder if the heat absorbed by your red brick walls then radiates heat to the honeysuckle and is just too much for it?

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





  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    It’s london stock brick, the pale yellow kind. But I suppose all brick retains heat and radiates it back out.
    I had really thought that was good position for it…
    Maybe I’m wrong!
    Will it become more tolerant as it gets older and if I water it even more than I have done, do you think?
    Hope it don’t have to move it…
    Do you do lots of maintenance to yours yearly, by the way?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    It's up on the Shady Bank which my OH won't let me clamber on ever since my knee started giving way without warning (snapped ligament ... I blame niece's trampoline) so late last summer my daughter @WonkyWomble cut it back for me as it was getting very top heavy, but that's all the maintenance it gets, other than watering ... a handful of Fish Blood and Bone in late February and a generous helping of Clematis feed in April.  Otherwise it's left pretty much to itself ... last year a dunnock nested in it ... no sign of it this year, but maybe next year ... 

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





  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Ouch.
    Sounds like a good maintenance routine to me.
    Do you think I should move mine, perhaps?
    Or will it become better equipped at withstanding more sun than yours, with judicious watering and age?
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