Ceanothus problems

[chokkie]

I wonder if one of you garden experts can help solve the mystery of our ceanothus bushes. We planted two in our back garden a few years ago and they both initially flourished. Both were sited against wooden fences, on opposite sides of the garden, although one side is more shaded than the other. This year, one has come into leaf, but no flowers at all.

The other ceanothus has just refused to even come ito leaf (the one on the shadowy side of the garden). OH decided to inspect it with a view to sawing it down and getting rid of it, but then noticed that the main "trunk" had split. He then realised that the roots had gone rotten and he was able to pull it out of the ground in two bits.

We were just wondering what might have happened in each case. Can someone help, please.

Many thanks, Chox.

[boxtops]

Chokkie, our ceanothus has inexplicably died this spring, in circumstances very similar to those you describe. It was fine in the autumn. We had shaped it into a loliipop shaped tree which was attractive as we have only a small garden, and in the autumn we cut it hard back to reshape it. In the early spring it started to sprout again, but over coming weeks the green leaves shrivelled and browned and now the whole tree is dead, with the trunk starting to crack. I had grown it from a sapling so it would be about ten years old now.
We lost a twisted willow tree a couple of years ago but we suspect that might have been starved of moisture in its shallow roots when a large concrete base for a shed was laid next door - but this can be nothing like that, there appears to be nothing the matter with the soil, bamboo and ferns are flourishing as it our neighbour's standard cherry right beside our dead tree.

If anyone has any ideas, I too will be glad to know - if we take it out it will leave a large hole in our garden planting and I am reluctant to put anything else in there in case it is something to do with the soil.

[Prudie]

I don't have the answer but just wanted to add that my 10 year old ceanothus died this winter too. I've just trimmed it back and grown a couple of clematis up it as it seems too big a job to dig it out.

[boxtops]

That's our plan, prudie, we've bought some climbers. It still seems pretty sound in the ground, and the cats like to climb up it anyway.

[chokkie]

Hmmm, that's very interesting .... We don't think that there's a problem with the soil in that area, because all the other plants near it are fine, if not flourishing. However, I should add that we have a dry garden and both ceanothus bushes are planted into gravel covered soil. It could well have been the excessively cold winter, it's very cold and shaded in that particular corner, so maybe that's the reason why. But it would still be interesting to hear from other AB gardeners. Poor old ceanothus! We'll keep the other one though, it's still in leaf and covers a bit of bare fence ....

[chokkie]

Forgot to mention ... I think that once we've cleared away the debris of the ceanothus, we're eventually going to put in a rosemary bush and see how that does. We used to get our rosemary sprigs from our next door neighbour's bush in the front garden (she had shedloads of the stuff), until just recently - when OH went out front to pick a couple of sprigs and found she had taken out the bushes - what a shocker! We were really sad about that, because we would have preferred that she had taken out the ivy which she had planted on her side, which is now crawling around all our bushes and choking everything else.

Anyway, hope to hear more from other AB gardeners .... bye for now, Chox

[Hawkwalk]

the very cold winter has seen off many shrubs and I would suspect that is what has happened to yours.

[chokkie]

I think you're absolutely right, it's just interesting that it was only that one and everything else around it is fine, despite being a shady part of the garden.

Thanks to all for their input - it's much appreciated.

Chox.

[landscaper2]

Agree with Hawkwalk, our taste of a 'real' winter has sorted out many shrubs - aspect seems to be the key. Maybe our 'garden designers' wont be so 'palm mad' in the future......but i doubt it!

[carlton23]

Here in Bournemouth, Dorset, my Ceonothus has been the best I`ve seen it, and believe me it`s been colder this past winter than I`ve known it for years. Do you live up north Chox?

[factor-fiction]

Hi again carlton23- no luck with the avatar yet, then.

[Prudie]

I'm in Dorset too Carlton and mine didn't make it, nor my passion flower and the fuchsias have taken a major battering.

[kettledrum]

I have lost a flourishing ceanothus, a viburnum, a bay tree (although I may have been a bit hasty in writing it off: having sawn it off to about 3 ft it's throwing up lots of shoots at ground level & a few on the remaining trunk) and a very large rosemary bush. I'm almost sure that it was a a result of the first harsh winter we've had for ages.

[chokkie]

Carlton - we live in the Midlands - and it was pretty cold up here. Went to the tip this morning with the now sawed-up bush and got rid of it. Went looking for some rosemary at homebase this morning, but they didn't have any. Bought a couple of rose bushes in stead - reduced in their sale, if they don't make it, they were cheap enough not to worry, but if they do - so much the better.

As we've been driving around during the last week or so, we have some spectacular displays of ceanothus bushes, I just love that shimmery blue colour ...

Still talking about ceanothus, a few years ago, the Parks Dept of our council removed a shrub which had been growing in the outside perimeter of our park (we live opposite) - I can't remember why they took it out now and can't remember what the original shrub was. Oh I think they were mending the footpath opposite. Anyway, I had a real go at them and they eventually replaced it with a ceanothus. Unfortunately that eventually conked out, and I discovered that some ceanothus bushes need a wall to "lean" against, and some don't. This one was obviously the former variety. They still haven't replaced that shrub, but I've kinda got used to the space now.

[boxtops]

Hi all - thanks Chokkie for an interesting thread, we thought we'd just been unlucky but this seems a common problem. We are in Dover so on a corner which can get extremes of weather for the SE, and our garden too is soil covered in gravel with a slabbed patio adjacent. However, my neighbour down the road still has her unwieldy untrimmed ceanothus in full flower! We wondered if we had overpruned but since it was a sapling I grew it into the lollipop shape so as to have space underneath the foliage - but you say yours is/was still bushy so it can't be that the trunk was exposed to too much cold, and it did start to sprout in early spring before it died. It may be "just one of those things" but it's interesting to hear that it's happened to individual ceanothuses (ceanothi?!) all round the country.

[chokkie]

Boxtops, We are not really gardeners, but do like to keep the garden looking trim and neat. I think I mentioned earlier that we have a dry garden at the back (slabs and gravel) because OH got really fed up with mowing two lawns and, in actual fact, having the garden landscaped has given us an "extra room" in the summer (if you know what I mean). Anyway, Oh did think that he had overpruned the ceanothus (he always gets a bit too enthusiastic with these things), but it just didn't even sprout buds in the spring. I think it's a case of "you win some, you lose some", although it is a shame when a lovely bush like that goes belly up!

Thanks to everyone for your comments, much appreciated. It's nice to know that we're not on our own!