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Ilex cloud tree

Hi, and thanks for reading. I did a very stupid thing, and repotted my Ilex cloud tree into a much bigger pot. Watered it daily for 3 weeks, not realising the pot had NO drain holes. Now ALL the leaves have fallen off and I'm worried its dead. Is there anything I can do? Obviously I've drilled holes in the pot now, and stopped watering it. Many thanks.

Posts

  • Hmm, tricky as well as drainage holes,  have you raised the pot off the ground? That will make sure it drains.  Give it a few more weeks,  see if you get any bud break.  
    AB Still learning

  • Yeah, I've done that. It happened in the summer, took weeks for all the leaves to turn brown and fall off. Not expecting anything to happen during the autumn/winter. Just hoping it may spring back to life in the spring. It does look pretty dead though.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    All you can do, is to wait until Spring and pray.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    If you scrape the bark off one of the branches with your fingernail and see green tissue underneath, the plant is still alive.  If it's brown underneath and the branch snaps easily I'm afraid there's little hope.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • Arthur1Arthur1 Posts: 542
    Poorly hollies can take years to recover. I rescued some 'returns' from a skip once, one took nearly 10 years to really look well. Now it's fantastic.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    I side with the "wait" brigade.

    On the optimistic side, your cloud-tree roots might just have benn tempoaraily starved of oxygen.  Choked as it were.  

    On the pessimistic side, the small feeder roots might have died; never to recover. The scrape-the-bark test is worth doing.  And looking for growing buds.

    The tree may survive but the cloud training, not.

    Was the investment significant?  I have a self-seeded common holly that I am training into a cloud tree.  It is now some 8 ft tall.  No cash investment, but my time and mental investment has been a lot.


     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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