Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Honeysuckle & Clematis - are they diseased or something else?

rich.hardcastlerich.hardcastle Posts: 2
in Plants
Hello all.

This is my 1st post so bear with me :) So, I have a honeysuckle that I planted 2 or 3 years ago. In spring it looks fine but by late June/July a lot of the lower leaves look like they have a fungal/viral infection. I'm hoping it's just a nutrient/watering issue but maybe somebody here can tell me what the problem is. I first noticed the problem last year and it has happened again this year.

The soil where it is planted is not brilliant, there is a lot of building debris, sand and gravel in that area although I did dig out all the soil along the house wall to about a foot deep and a foot away from the house and filled it back in with a general purpose compost when I originally planted the Honeysuckle. The wall of the house faces west so it's possible there is too much strong sunlight although I doubt that will have been a problem this year :/. This year I have noticed that the nearby Clematis also seems to be suffering from the same issue. On both plants it only seems to be the upper side of the leaf that is affected, the lower side is fine.

This is the area where the Honeysuckle and Clematis are growing...it's a very windy corner!
Above is a closer view of the affected Honeysuckle leaves.
and hers is the affected leaves of the nearby Clematis.
A close-up of the upper side of an affected Honeysuckle leaf.
and this is the underside of the same leaf.

Hopefully the problem will just be an enviromental issue such as nutrients/watering/poor soil/weather damage but I'm guessing somebody here will know what the problem and remedy is.

Many thanks in advance,
CT

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hello @rich.hardcastle and welcome to the forum 😊 

    I think your instincts are right and they need more water than they’ve been getting.  The area near the foot of a wall is usually in a rain-shadow and gets much less rain than the surrounding areas. 

    If those lavenders are happy then the clematis and honeysuckle are likely to be struggling… they need very different conditions. 

    Hope that helps. 😊 

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





  • rich.hardcastlerich.hardcastle Posts: 2
    Hi Dovefromabove and thanks for the reply. That's pretty much what I was thinking/hoping. The lavenders seem to like it in that little part of the garden although the sun doesn't get to them until around 1pm but then it stays on them for the rest of the day. I did amend the soil along the house wall but as you say the rainfall in that specific area is probably low or nothing at all.

    I guess I'll have to decide whether I want to water them pretty much every day or bite the bullet and move them in late autumn. I've just finished taking out a row of Leylandii that was growing against a west facing 5 foot boundary fence in the front (south-facing) garden, I could at least move the Clems to that location but it may be too sunny for the Honeysuckle. I do have 5 small Spindles, 5 small Dog Rose and 5 small Hawthawn that I'll be moving later in the year also a few young wild cherry trees plus a couple of Gooseberry, Blackcurrant and Blueberry bushes to plant and also a Rhodedendrum and a Magnolia Grandiflora Kay Parris to plant. Maybe I can figure out a way to arrange everything so they are all happy lol. I decided midway through spring to get rid of the lawn in the front garden and started digging it all up...since then it's turned into a complete overhaul so at least I have free choice as to where things end up being planted.

    Thanks again for your reply and I apologise for my bad spelling lol
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    My honeysuckles are very happy against a northfacing fence … their roots are cool and damp then when they get to the top and get sunshine they burst into flower  any chance of a spot like that?  


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





  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Bear in mind that the soil where Leylandii will have been growing will be very dry and deprived of nutrients.

    When you dug the bit where the honeysuckle and clematis are did you change the soil completely for compost or did you dig the compost in? Better to dig it in, mix it with soil, otherwise it's  bit like planting into a pot and the plants will need feeding and watering more.

    It looks as though the honeysuckle is very close to the wall. It's always dry close to walls. Clematis are quite thirsty plants.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I agree with @Busy-Lizzie - the soil will be no use for honeysuckles and clematis. The early, small flowered clematis like poorer, drier soil, but not the other types. If you haven't had the clematis in situ for long, you can certainly move it, but you'd have to be careful, and then patient with it recovering. If you know the variety, that can help with advice too, but a thorough soaking and as big a rootball as possible is needed. 

    You'd need to improve the soil enormously, especially when it's next to a wall, as the others have said. Rotted manure, good topsoil, leaf mould [if you had it] and any other organic matter is the way to solve that. You can keep adding mulches of them throughout the year as it's not feasible to lift the plants and start again.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Sign In or Register to comment.