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Plants dying?
Cat 3
Posts: 107
I was away on vacation for 16 days got back 7 Sept and found all my trees leafless or with dry leaves. See photos. Will they come back is there anyway I can revive them?
One is a prunus autamnalis ( not sure of spelling) but it is a winter cherry. Supposed to have winter flowers. Another is a corkscrew willow. This is now just red no leaves. The weeping birch are just hangling on.
Also I purchased duo fruit trees from Ideal World they said I would have fruit guaranteed. I have no fruit although there are leaves. Will I get fruit next year. Could the lack of fruit be due to truma on planting in April?
i also have Dragon Trees - will these come back? Should I cut them right back?
Thanks for help
0
Posts
Have you just planted them this year? It could be lack of water. Most trees need watered and cosseted for the first year. As an aside, for any plant planted in grass you need a much bigger cleared space round it. At least a couple of feet across.
New planting will be stressed they need coddling the first couple of years and this year has not been good for even established trees and bushes. As Hogweed says you need a good clearance around the bole. Dig a deep hole add some grit in the base and compost around the root ball as you plant and heel them in then water a couple of buckets a week will be needed for at least a year.
What to do now. Clear some of the grass away, mulch with a good compost with some Bone meal and Granular fertiliser added, a handfull is all, water this in then wait until Spring and see what comes. They may just be resting early as some trees and shrubs around here are doing, remember most lose their leaves they are doing what comes naturally only early. Patience is a gardeners best tool, your fruit trees may take a couple of years to bear any fruit, they need spring warmth to blossom then plenty of flying insects to pollinate. Hope this helps.
Frank.
Agree with Tetley, Hogweed & Palaisglide to some extent.
However, I've just read all of your previous posts Cat3 and can see this is a new build and you described your garden as boggy and have had lots of plant and tree problems.
I think the issue is that you are on a particularly tricky type of clay and plants have been put into holes in the clay which have been filled with bought-in topsoil. This is a recipe for disaster as when the clay is boggy, the water drains into the planting holes which act as sumps and the plants and trees suffer from waterlogging which makes the roots rot. When the weather becomes drier, the clay turns into a concrete-like layer and sucks all of the water out (as evidenced by your dry looking grass.) Because of the damaged roots, the trees are unable to support the leaves and this leads to premature leaf drop or even death.
There is no easy way to solve this issue other than by wholesale improvement of your soil by incorporating large amounts of organic matter (mushroom compost being a relatively inexpensive way of obtaining this.) Adding large amounts of grit would help too. From you previous posts I also note that you are unable to do this work yourself and employ gardeners so would suggest that rather then spending lots of money on expensive plants (and gardeners which don't seem to be very good) that you invest in getting a landscaping firm in who can use machines to incorporate the soil improvers and rotovate it all in thoroughly. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but is the best advice I can offer.
Last edited: 11 September 2016 14:17:12