plants going brown and looking bad - what am I doing wrong

RobAMerc

Hi all,

I bought some plants pretty much for the first time ever and they seem to be dying on me

2 are outside the front door - buxus I think they are. Did did get a bit dry in fairness but I have had them out in the rain for days now and they still look off.
The other is inside and doesnt look to be doing well at all. It too has been watered a bit.

Can someone tell me whats up, I hate to see stuff die !

thanks

toddunctious

Hi
The buxus does look well at all
The pot it's in is far too small, how long do you have it ?
Also the plant you have indoors looks like a outdoor conifer but doesn't look bad
I'm sure someone else will be along to offer more advice
Best of luck

macraignil

RobAMerc wrote: »

Hi all,

I bought some plants pretty much for the first time ever and they seem to be dying on me

2 are outside the front door - buxus I think they are. Did did get a bit dry in fairness but I have had them out in the rain for days now and they still look off.
The other is inside and doesnt look to be doing well at all. It too has been watered a bit.

Can someone tell me whats up, I hate to see stuff die !

thanks

The first picture has a conifer of some sort in a pot that's got a bit small for it so I would recommend planting it in a bigger container or somewhere in the ground so its roots have more space for the plant to grow. Be aware that if it is Leylandii it will want to grow to a large tree so unless you have a big garden you might be better off keeping it in a container.

The second picture looks like buxus that has died back from cold or disease or lack of water. I have heard of a blight disease that effects buxus but I'm not familiar enough with it to say if that is the problem with your plants. Not sure from the picture if the buxus will recover as there are a lot of dead leaves. I have read comments on the discussion forum here of experienced gardeners having problems with buxus.

Marhay70

The first picture is of some kind of cupressus which is pot bound, the second is box which is either droughted or waterlogged and probably starving to boot. The cupressus picture is grainy when magnified but even so, you can see the roots coming out of the top, pot it up into a pot about two sizes bigger and leave it outside, I can't think of any reason why it should be inside.
The box is in a far worse state but could recover. First of all, I would try to take it out of the pot to see the condition of the root ball, it could be either droughted or waterlogged. Does it sit in that saucer at all times and if it does are there any pebbles in the saucer to keep the bottom of the pot clear of any water that may accumulate? If the roots of the plant are constantly sitting in water it will lead to root rot and eventually kill the plant.
If on the other hand, the root ball is dry then the best thing to do is plunge the whole thing into a bucket of water and keep it there until all air bubbles have stopped, then take it out and let it drain. If you look at the plant, you will see that the branches spread out over the diameter of the pot so even leaving it out in the rain will not guarantee that rain will penetrate the leaf canopy. In addition, all plants in pots need to be fed, they are not getting any nutrition from the soil so you need to give it to them, any balanced plant food should do but wait until you see if it recovers before you start to feed.
There are several viruses which affect box but usually they appear as a leaf or stem spot before the leaves die off.

looksee

I would agree with all the advice given, especially about the pots being too small, the cyprus being indoors, the lack of watering and feeding.

RobAMerc

thanks folks -

the indoor one was bought off a shelf in tesco so I presumed was an indoor plant, but yes I did put it in a smaller container.

the buxus was bought in that container. they were in a sheltered spot left outside so I presumed given the amount of rain we got they still got wet.

would the buxus need a much bigger pot ?

Marhay70

RobAMerc wrote: »

thanks folks -

the indoor one was bought off a shelf in tesco so I presumed was an indoor plant, but yes I did put it in a smaller container.

the buxus was bought in that container. they were in a sheltered spot left outside so I presumed given the amount of rain we got they still got wet.

would the buxus need a much bigger pot ?

Cupressus in general are very vigorous plants, most are not suitable for pots and unless you go to a reputable garden centre you can't be sure that the "dwarf" plant you buy is really a dwarf. As a rule of thumb you should not plant into pots smaller than the one it comes in.

The buxus may not need to go into a larger pot, you will be able to tell when you take it out of the pot it's in. If there are thick roots winding round and round, and the plant is difficult to get out because of this then it probably needs to go up a size. At any rate I wouldn't do it until you see if it recovers. If it does need to go up a pot size you would need to soak it well and try to loosen some of the roots out of the root ball so they can grow into the new soil, otherwise they will just keep growing round and round.
As I said, the leaf canopy acts like an umbrella and the soil in the pot can be bone dry even after heavy rain in fact misty drizzly weather will likely give it more water.

RobAMerc

thanks again.

I went to Homebase where they were bought and they confirmed I should have planted them or put them in much bigger pots.

Happily they reckon I can bring them back as they guarantee their plants !

I will be ko'd if they do replace them but sad I manged to kill them.