Flowers dying - no idea why!

rcarter15

Hi all,

Need some help please. Last year I dug up some of my garden to put a patio down, I used the soil dug out to raise the flower bed at the back of the garden about 6 inch high x 10 foot long.

This year I put a load of flowers in including 'fast growing' vines to cover the back wall, and a mix of others. Some 6 weeks later and everything looks dead (see photos attached).

I have no idea why, is there a bug issue? over watering? (with the sunny spell we had I was watering everynight) or is the soil dead / useless?

I even tried some bio feed and mixing in some compost on the top of the bedding - still everything (except the lavender which seems to be spreading nicely on one side) seems to be dying.

any thoughts??? At this point I'm close to digging out all the soil (3 foot x 10 foot x 6 inch) and replacing it lol

thanks

Richard

Rows Grower

Could possibly be the vine weevil is causing your problem, they are like little maggots that eat through fresh roots.

If you lift some of the dead plants and see the roots are severed at a shallow level I'd be even more convinced.

There are numerous ways to deal with them, I turn the soil, pick them out and feed them to the hens and ducks.

looksee

The second pic looks like slug damage.

The clematis (?) may not have been planted with sufficient care and the root ball is just sitting dried up in a pocket of unfavourable soil. You could try mulching it well with compost, water thoroughly (a rare good soak, like a watering can full applied slowly is more use than a frequent sprinkle of water) then put a slab of some sort over the root area. Cut down the top growth to ground level and see what happens. If it is a clematis. If it is something else then I'm not sure this will work.

The first one looks sick but I couldn't say what the problem is, probably as has been suggested, some sort of insect/bug damage.

Butterbeans

What's the drainage like? Soil looks very wet, but you may just have watered prior to taking the pictures. If the drainage is not great, watering every day(even in hot weather) would be too much, roots sat in water will result in unhealthy plants.
As above poster said, check the roots of affected plants for vine weevil damage (larvae are white grubs with red heads and they feed on roots of plants). Adults are beetle-like and feed on the leaves of plants.
Is it all your plants? I can see alyssum bedding in the corner of your 1st pic and it looks to be okay(full and flowering).....perhaps only been planted?

Zenify

I remember digging a pond in my garden and using the soil to create a raised grass patch. The grass grew well on one side of the patch and didn't at all on the other. The side that did well was the top of the hole and the other was the bottom.

There's no organic matter/ nutrients when you dig down too far. Lavender is not a heavy feeder and will do well with low fertility (hense why its surviving). I'm no expert but maybe there's one here who can confirm my thoughts?

Lumen

My guess is poor soil (subsoil), along the lines of what Zenify wrote.

It's very difficult to turn subsoil into topsoil. Topsoil takes many, many years to develop good structure at the microscopic level, even if you mechanically mix in compost and other organic matter it'll look alright but it'll never work as well as native topsoil.

I've a load myself that I keep shifting round the garden. I'm either going to put it in with the chickens for a few years, or spread it a few inches thick, pile a load of manure and seaweed on top of it and let the worms at it.

Grass is fairly undemanding (it'll grow in gravel so it'll grow in almost anything eventually) but if you're trying to grow specimen plants I think you're on to a loser.

rcarter15

thanks everyone for the ideas. I figured I had nothing to lose so I dug the Clematis to have a look at the roots.

I've upload some extra pics showing the left side of the flower bed which has the two purple Cineraria of which one looks nearly dead and the other looking poorly. A close up of the Cineraria root ball is included.

The photo of the right side of the bed contains two asiatic lillies that have been eaten to death by something (close ups provided), and the lavender which is growing.

I have included photos of the Clematis rootball and on close inspection it does have some green shoots (see photo), but the rest of the plat looks dead.

I'm thinking the soil is just crap, as I said it was dug out grass and left the last year with nothing in it. I tried some fertizer balls (green things you can see in photo, and some bio feed over the last few months).

any thoughts...

thanks

Richard

looksee

Clematis - yes it does that, generally clematis wilt, but it will respond brilliantly to having all the dead stuff cut off and allow the new stuff to grow.

TomOnBoard

looksee wrote: »

Clematis - yes it does that, generally clematis wilt, but it will respond brilliantly to having all the dead stuff cut off and allow the new stuff to grow.

Also, clematis benefits from keeping its roots cool. i used to place a flat rock on top of the soil based on advice I got years ago.

macraignil

rcarter15 wrote: »

Hi all,

Need some help please. Last year I dug up some of my garden to put a patio down, I used the soil dug out to raise the flower bed at the back of the garden about 6 inch high x 10 foot long.

This year I put a load of flowers in including 'fast growing' vines to cover the back wall, and a mix of others. Some 6 weeks later and everything looks dead (see photos attached).

I have no idea why, is there a bug issue? over watering? (with the sunny spell we had I was watering everynight) or is the soil dead / useless?

I even tried some bio feed and mixing in some compost on the top of the bedding - still everything (except the lavender which seems to be spreading nicely on one side) seems to be dying.

any thoughts??? At this point I'm close to digging out all the soil (3 foot x 10 foot x 6 inch) and replacing it lol

thanks

Richard

You say you planted fast growing vines but I think you are expecting a bit much if you think they will be growing fast after just being planted six weeks. Only leaving the clematis in the ground for six weeks is not allowing enough time for the roots to settle and get established in my opinion. They will not grow upwards much until the roots are settled and it is not a good time of year for planting. As suggested a mulch might help retain moisture in the soil. Also you mention watering every evening which will encourage slugs to travel and make it easier for them to find food. If you cut the top off a plastic bottle and place the opened cap end buried in the ground you can water the soil deeper down through this and avoid water getting on the foliage and soil surface where it can encourage pests and fungal disease.

I don't believe your soil is dead or useless but the planting position close to a concrete wall is a difficult one for many plants to settle in. There could be a foundation of concrete under the wall so it is difficult for roots to go deep as they would naturally do to find moisture and nutrients. Your flowers have been put in a difficult position from what I can see so it would be expected that they would not thrive straight away.

Plants sold in shops will often be carefully cared for and given optimal conditions and it requires a great deal of care for them to continue looking good and after being disturbed many will loose their appearance and focus on surviving or setting seed. Buy some young plants before they have flowered or plant seeds now to plant out when we get some wet weather is what I would recommend.

Pick what your planting depending on what conditions you are able to provide. Many wildflowers do well on low nutrient soil and I have heard some people strongly recommend wildflower seed mixtures they have tried but this will also depend on how much shade the walls are making on your flower bed as I think these do best in full light and I can't tell from your post is the wall south facing. Plants will not go on flowering and looking good all year long and putting things in to look good at different times of the year is important to make a nice garden. Some plants are more tolerant of difficult conditions than others and to me it looks like you have just plated demanding plants in a place that does not meet their needs.

currants

That looks like moss on the soil around the clematis. Have you been standing on the bed a lot when planting. It looks as if your soil is compacted. Digging up grass sod shouldnt give you nutrient poor soil, in fact it should be the opposite if you give a few months for the grass to rot down. In future if you're remving grass place the sods with the grass facing each other in a pile and leave it for at least 6 months, realistically a year. you should come back to nicely rich compost.

The roots on the purple flower are still in the pot shape so the soil is far too compacted for your new plants to bed in. You could lift them all, turn the soil over with a fork and most importantly use a long plank to stand on it when you're doing this. Overwatering will make this problem worse as will anybody standing on the bed. Cover the bed with wood chips as they will improve the soil as they break down and stop the green mould growing on it. Soil needs air.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=412

rcarter15

compacted soil - have never thought of that! it was sub soil lifted from under the grass and I just threw it on to the other flower bed. Quite thick clay type soil and has had me walking over it (20 odd stone lol)

Think I'll cut the clematis back then give it a few months see what happens. If they all die off then I'll dig it over and mix in some more compost etc.

thanks everyone

standardg60

Mmm..there's not a lot wrong here. The plant in the first pic (just stems) and the damage to the lilies is slugs.
The cineraria need to be dead headed, surprised no one else said this, if you don't trim off the spent flowers they will seed and stop flowering. The clematis is fine, they can die off once planted but once they settle in and are happy they grow fine.

The fact the petunia and allysum are growing fine means there's nothing wrong with your soil.

wildwillow

The clematis looks like it has been eaten by slugs. You need to loosen and spread the root ball of all the plants and don't plant too deep. Keep the roots of the clematis cool. It won't make much growth this year, and it also depends on the type of clematis planted. some race off and others are later flowering and slower to establish.

standardg60

wildwillow wrote: »

The clematis looks like it has been eaten by slugs. You need to loosen and spread the root ball of all the plants and don't plant too deep. Keep the roots of the clematis cool. It won't make much growth this year, and it also depends on the type of clematis planted. some race off and others are later flowering and slower to establish.

Sorry I can't agree with any of this. Whilst breaking up rootballs might be advised when planting a severely potbound tree or shrub, I certainly wouldn't be doing it with a half hardy perennial like cineraria.

Also the clematis pictured is a hybrid, so unlike the species, macropetala, montana etc., it is actually advised to plant at least two inches deeper than it is in the pot to help prevent clematis wilt.

rcarter15

so in summary:

Clematis - cut them back and remove anything that looks dead on top and let it regrow?

Cineraria - remove all the dead flowers and it should recover?

possible slug / snail issue (I see three snails on the back wall this morning!) - so I'll through down some pellets / skewer them


I'll plan next weekend to lift all the plants, and fork turn all the soil mixing in some compost and keeping it loosely filled (not the compacted soil I have now).

Hopefully the plants aren't too dead (if that's a thing lol) otherwise its another trip to Horkans and another 80 euro of plants lol

thanks

Richard

seagull

Slugs and snails are an excuse for you to drink most of a can of beer, using the rest to set beer traps for the poxy slitherers.

looksee

I wouldn't lift anything you haven't already moved, dig between them and try not to disturb them further.

standardg60

looksee wrote: »

I wouldn't lift anything you haven't already moved, dig between them and try not to disturb them further.

+1

macraignil

standardg60 wrote: »

+1

I'd agree with not moving things so soon after planting also.