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Has Kerria japonica been rehabilitated?

keepitlivekeepitlive Posts: 102
in Plants
A few years ago, this shrub, one of my spring favourites, disappeared due to a fungal disease for which there was no treatment. On a recent visit to a local garden centre, I was surprised to see Kerria on sale. Checking online showed them there as well.

Have I missed something?

Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Mine never quite went away. The main shrub died, but a runner that had snuck in to a nearby drystone wall has hung on in there for the years since and this year was strong enough for a few flowers :)
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited December 2021
    Miine all died from Kerria Blight a few years ago, but there are a couple of surviving healthy-looking stems, from wayward runners, now inside a mixed native hedge at the top of a ditch, where the ground contains also contains a lot of rubble, so is exceptionally well drained.  I wonder if that's the answer to surviving blight @Buttercupdays ?  My other (dead) clumps were in permanently moist clay soil (north-facing.)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    This is one of the plants I really dislike - underperformers that flower for a couple of weeks and then look desperately dull all year - mimosa, forsythia, flowering currant, broom ....  There's one here, planted by a previous owner too close to what has become a huge bay tree.  The kerria limps along suckering out from the side.  If I could get in and grub it out I would.
    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
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    @BobTheGardener It's a thought, but hard to say :) The original shrub (inherited) was in fairly poor soil, but got both sun and rain, while the wall, though south facing, is at the back of a border and shaded by crocosmia Lucifer and a clem on an obelisk, so gets neither. It probably gets enough water from what percolates down from the flagged terrace above, but doesn't present as an auspicious site!
    I sometimes escape being affected by pests or diseases because  of our isolated position, surrounded by grazing, with no gardens nearby. My box bushes are still healthy. I am keeping all fingers and toes crossed with regard to ash die-back.
    The previous owners planted a mini ash grove, with the trees far too close together. They have grown at different rates, some much better than others and the central 'mother' tree is magnificent. Some of the smaller trees have shown some signs of branches dying, but keep going. One tree died about 4 years ago and we didn't rush to remove it because the woodpeckers love it. This last spring,  after a lot of rainfall, I was amazed to see new, green growth from both the base and higher up the trunk, after 3 years of nothing  :)  I feel that the mother tree, while competing, is also supporting the  other trees around and am hoping it might be one of those that can show some immunity to chalara. I would be very sad to lose them.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    I never even knew there was a problem with this shrub species. It seems very common around these parts and I have one in the back garden. I wouldn't says it's particularly impressive but it does have some nice arching stems that come through other prettier things. 
    It is currently flowering at the moment which add some much needed coloir to,the grey days. It usually puts on a half decent display in spring.
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