hebe's

[west ham fan]

Hi all you real green fingered gardener's out there, I have over the last month lost a beautiful mature Hebe bush, it is brown bread dead and I do not know why, it has been blooming well over the last 20 yeaars with out fail, then in the last week a younger Hebe also has died it is or was about 8-9 years it was flowering a week ago now that too is dead. Any ideas as to why this could be happening they are in different area's of the garden, the older of the 2 was next to a west facing wall and the other next to a east facing wall, as I say both had been doing well for years. please help can I salavage any thing or should I just dig them up and hold a post mortem, cheerse WHF

[erin-x]

I definitely have no green fingers to speak of but my mum had the same problem. My brother is a landscape gardener and told her to prune it right back and it seems to have a few bits of new growth appearing. And our one was 10 years old. I think it was to do with the crazy weather last year cos a lot of my mums plants haven't fared well.. especially her palms which have just rotten :| Bit long winded but I hope it helps lol :) x

[askyourgran]

Last year we had some Manure/mix of leaves twigs to enrich our poor soil, The birds had a birthday chucking it all over the lawn and pathways to get to the worms etc. Alas, this year our Bottle brush plant is dead (as a dodo) brown crisp leaves ditto the heather plant, the azaeleas (2) look a bit sorry too. I can only think it's the manure mix. Have you added something to the soil? Another thought is the hard winter we've had.

[landscaper2]

It's almost certainly the hash winter. As has been mentioned, cut back, give thenm a good feed and and see if they regenerate.

The Bottle brush has been particularly had hit, so I think this is your problem ayg. Cut it back to about 18" and it may start shooting out. We maintain a number of gardens and noticed this week that tiny shoots are appearing where we did this a few weeks ago.

[west ham fan]

Hi thankyou all for your reply's I forgot to mention we have also noticed in the last week that our privet hedge also has been burnt it is I say burnt because that is just what all the shrubs I have mentioned look like has happened to them , our neighbours privet also appears to be the same as ours.In answer to your question askyourgran we have not put any form of dressing as yet on our plants or shrubs this year 2 years ago we did mulch all around, but we had a beautifull show from our Hebe's. I will try your suggestions, if this still does not work how long do you all reckon we should give the poor dead things a chance before we decide to pull them out of the ground?, or do you think we should treat them with a chance like the footy team West Ham. cheers WHF

[ladyalex]

Our hebes have almost died too. I'm sure it was the harsh winter last year (well we had 2 harsh winters in a row really)

I've cut all the brown bits off and am hoping for the best with the very little that is left.