Cotoneaster is dying

bbari

I planted Cotoneaster plant about three years ago. It was or is 5 ft. tall. It had green leaves for a year and half with kind of berries. For the past year or so, the leaves been shrinking and now they have completely shrunk. There has been no growth whatsoever. The tree which was supposed to be evergreen has become never green! It does get sun and i kept watering during the dry spell last year.

Any advise on how to bring the plant back to life.

J Cheevor Loophole

Have you any pics, Cotoneaster are fairly bomb proof in my experience, so my info on soil, plant siting ie facing west / east etc.

bbari

It does get plenty of sun for 3/4 of the day. I have been feeding with a spoon of fishbone fertiliser every year. The plants beside it are doing ok. Since its planted three years ago, it hasn't grown up at all. For 1st year or two, the leaves stayed green and now this....

Day Lewin

It is most unusual for a Cotoneaster to not flourish.

Are there any little buds on it at this time of year? Take a look at those jointed places where the leaves start.

To be honest, it looks pretty dead to me and I would throw in the towel on it: Its clearly not happy and maybe a new one would do better.

PS If you replace this, check the planting hole: most Cotoneaster will grow out of even a cracked wall, but there may be something under it in the soil that is disagreeing with it.
(Might anyone have dumped some toxic liquid on it?)

J Cheevor Loophole

Looks fairly terminal alright, above advice is sound, Best of luck with what you decide.

bbari

Oh no!. is there anything at all i can give a try before saying it goodbye? Could there be a rock under the roots which is stopping its growth?

J Cheevor Loophole

If there's no buds, there's no growth unfortunately. You can try pruning all the back the first old leaf joint right at the top of the standard stem. Give it a lot of TLC for a couple of months. No growth thereafter ?…..dig it up, prep the soil, start fresh in September / October.

looksee

It was 5 ft tall and died within 2 seasons? Sounds as though it wasn't really healthy when you planted it. What kind of place did you buy it from? (garden centre, supermarket etc) or was it given to you? Did it dry out completely before you planted it? Possibly it was struggling and last year's heatwave finished it off. It really is hard to kill a cononeaster! Cut it back and see if you can find any green wood (white-ish green sappy wood inside the stems). If its all brownish and dry then its dead. Have a look at the very base and see if any shoots are appearing.

bbari

Just had a look at different places of the stem, its all brown and completely dried out. I purchased it from Clarenbridge garden centre along with 6 other trees. I guess i gotta replace it. I got one evergreen (Cotoneaster) for the privacy thru out the year. Ah well. Thank you all. Any advice on what to go for?

looksee

I would be inclined to lift it and see how much root it has, it sounds as though it never took off. Take it back to the garden centre and ask if they have any ideas - no point putting a tree back in the same place if there is an issue with the ground, but it does seem like a problem with the plant.

bbari

I got them delivered as I'm in Dublin so not worth to bring it back to the garden centre. I'll dig out anyway

JustAThought

bbari wrote: »

I got them delivered as I'm in Dublin so not worth to bring it back to the garden centre. I'll dig out anyway

It looks fairly waterlogged there -was that just the day or is the ground always this marshy there? Also -no doubt in the puc the edge of yhe grass alongside it may be a yellowish colour because of the shade from the fence but did you put weedkiller along the verge?Coukd this have pooled and /or seeped into the roots?

I had a lilac tree that my above neighbours almost kilked by powerwashing their garden walls with something which ran off down into my garden & affected my tree. Luckily I spoke to them about it & they didn't do it the following year and the tree recovered -took 2 years.

I also have a cherry tree which seemed totally dead - dry wood & totally snapping off on main branches instead of green sap etc. No discernable reason or disease -no leaves grew for 2 years & I thought it was 100% dead - out of nowhere it grew buds and floweted this year and 80%of it looks good. Inexplicably.

Your C dosnt have a lot of spare branches to snap and test so f you were determined on digging it up I'd be looking at the roots and seeing if they were rotten away or if when yiu shook some soil away there wwre still living viablw roots. Msybe it could live in a pot with a different aspect and some seed and potging compost to try and encourage the tender roots to grow and thrive. You might be pleasantly surprised. You've already bought it & took a lot of time over it. Nature is a very resilliant thing - you might be pleasantly surprised next year.

bbari

The yellowish grass on the edges is because i used trimmer last weekend. Ground is wet there because of the rain last nite but it is usually like that if there is no sun for a few days.

I got seven trees at the same time when we moved in to our new home,

Cotoneaster
Cornus Kousa
Ornamental crab x 2
White birch x 3

All the tree grew except Cotoneaster. one of the birch trees is slower than the rest but atleast that didn't dry, i can see the buds and leaves coming out of the birch. I know the ground isn't ideal, I've taken one and half bins amount of rocks/stones out of the ground.

looksee

Are there pics in this thread? Some of the replies seem to suggest there are but I am not seeing any.

bbari

looksee wrote:

Are there pics in this thread? Some of the replies seem to suggest there are but I am not seeing any.

There are in the 3rd post. I can see em on my phone and pc.

New Home

Lookseee, these are the URLs for those pic:

http://i64.tinypic.com/zwxoj5.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/jtud60.jpg
http://i66.tinypic.com/10415cz.jpg

bbari

Thank you for your advise, I emailed the garden centre and they are kind enough to send me a replacement tree. is there anything different i should do this time ?