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Another poorly honeysuckle (and buddleja)
kasjk
Posts: 137
Does anyone know what is going on with my honeysuckle and buddleja? My buddleja has been looking poorly for a while, it looks like it's gradually dying and this last week my honeysuckle started to look a bit sickly too. It was lovely and full just last week but now you can see through to the trellis and it's got yellowing dying leaves. What's going on? Does anyone know?
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Not as far I know, it's a newly made bed, built last year and not sure if it makes any difference but the guy who did it filled it with fresh horse manure. I tried to remove most of it and put in proper soil instead. Could that have anything to do with it?
I don't understand, the honeysuckle was thriving up until last week.
That's exactly what happened to my buddelja. I speculated that it was herbicide as it's quite possible contract gardeners had sprayed land directly adjoining it.
I cut out all the bits that looked like that and am hoping for the best!
Oh dear, that's not good, I hope it doesn't affect my other plants too.
Hi the horse muck could actually burn the plants if it is not sufficiently rotted down, I found my honeysuckles can do that have you pruned them this year? Also you may want to check the roots and make sure nothing has had a good munch! If herbicide has been used it travels through the leaves down to the roots to kill the plant, it may be extreme but if you really want to save them dig them up clean the roots and cut back and replant?
Forgot the pesticides, your buddleja looks healthy on its other stems so perhaps the weakened side got knocked? They have quite brittle stems and yours looks young still?
It should recover in time
As for the honeysuckle, it looks hungry with a small amount of damage maybe from the strong winds recently
I haven't pruned the honeysuckle as I only planted it last year so it's only just taken off in terms of growth. I tried to dig out as much of the horse manure as I could as I read it burns the roots, I replaced most of it with proper compost, ie bags of compost from the garden centre.
Perhaps I should just leave them both for a while and see if they recover? Do I cut off the branches on the buddleja that are not looking too good? And give it a good feed perhaps?
I wouldn't worry too much about feeding the buddejla. They grow on waste ground quite happily. Cut off what is dead or dying, it should grow back stronger
Did you mix the honeysuckle compost in with the soil? The compost retains moisture but too much compost can get waterlogged around the roots
I garden on sandy soil so I'm always generous but mix it in well
Now that you mention it, Wintersong, the area where the honeysuckle is planted is always damp, it's one of the reasons I decided to create a raised bed, the ground it's built on is clay and always waterlogged. honeysuckle prefer quite dry soil don't they?
Honeysuckle like moist not dry, humus rich (greedy plants) and we'll draining, not soggy
I see...it could be that it's not the right plant for the place. I'll see how things pan out in a couple of weeks, if it continues to deteriorate I'll take action.