Brown Leaves on Forsythia

[Jo]

I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the leaves
are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it was due
to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown, but as
time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

[Chris Hogg]

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the leaves
are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it was due
to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown, but as
time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Forsythias are deciduous, which means they shed their leaves in
autumn, which seems generally to be early this year. Yours is only
doing what comes naturally.

[Jo]

Post by Chris Hogg

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the leaves
are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it was due
to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown, but as
time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Forsythias are deciduous, which means they shed their leaves in
autumn, which seems generally to be early this year. Yours is only
doing what comes naturally.
--
Chris
Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

Thanks...it just seemed way too early, but could be possible.

[Spider]

Post by Jo

Post by Chris Hogg

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the leaves
are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it was due
to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown, but as
time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Forsythias are deciduous, which means they shed their leaves in
autumn, which seems generally to be early this year. Yours is only
doing what comes naturally.
--
Chris
Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

Thanks...it just seemed way too early, but could be possible.

It is early, but trees and shrubs often defoliate prematurely when
drought has stressed them. This is because they can't support all that
green growth and stay alive. Because your shrub was only planted in
May, it won't have an established root system so it is more than usually
stressed. Give it a *really* good drench, then mulch around the root
zone with good compost or bark chips to hold the moisture in and to keep
the root zone cool.

If the brown leaves are staying on the shrub rather than falling, this
can indicate other problems. Alas, this is where my senior moment kicks
in so I can't remember the cause/s :~(. Sorry. Hopefully, it is just
drought-induced defoliation.

Good luck.

[Jo]

Post by Jo

Post by Chris Hogg

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the leaves
are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it was due
to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown, but as
time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Forsythias are deciduous, which means they shed their leaves in
autumn, which seems generally to be early this year. Yours is only
doing what comes naturally.
--
Chris
Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

Thanks...it just seemed way too early, but could be possible.

It is early, but trees and shrubs often defoliate prematurely when drought
has stressed them. This is because they can't support all that green
growth and stay alive. Because your shrub was only planted in May, it
won't have an established root system so it is more than usually stressed.
Give it a *really* good drench, then mulch around the root zone with good
compost or bark chips to hold the moisture in and to keep the root zone
cool.
If the brown leaves are staying on the shrub rather than falling, this can
indicate other problems. Alas, this is where my senior moment kicks in so
I can't remember the cause/s :~(. Sorry. Hopefully, it is just
drought-induced defoliation.
Good luck.
--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Seems like brown leaves are an attraction for the duration.....I may have to
look into other sources

[Jake]

On Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:44:56 +0100, Spider <***@invalid.com> wrote:
<pruned>

Post by Spider
If the brown leaves are staying on the shrub rather than falling, this
can indicate other problems. Alas, this is where my senior moment kicks
in so I can't remember the cause/s :~(. Sorry. Hopefully, it is just
drought-induced defoliation.
Good luck.

I was taught years ago that leaves going brown and leaves dropping are
two different processes. The lesson went something like something
tells a plant to slow down for the winter, the leaves stop doing their
job and change colour. After a while the plant notices this and as it
doesn't like hangers on it drops the leaves. In between we have all
the autumn hues. The bigger the plant, the longer it takes for it to
notice that the leaf is getting lazy as there's further to
communicate. Trees are the biggest plants which is why they hold the
autumn leaves longest.

Simple but sounds good to me.

Cheers
Jake
==============================================
Gardening at the dry end (east) of Swansea Bay
in between reading anything by JRR Tolkien.

www.rivendell.org.uk

['Mike']

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the
leaves are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it
was due to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were brown,
but as time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Bit dark when I read your posting last night and been a bit busy this
morning at the Theatre. Did think of getting the torch last night but
decided against ;-))

Not your problem at all. It comes round every year, it's called Autumn when
all the leaves will drop on your plant, and others as well ;-))

Mike

[Jo]

Post by 'Mike'

Post by Jo
I bought and planted a Forsythia in May. It is situated in a shady/sunny
spot and I have kep it well watered since planting. However, all the
leaves are starting to turn brown from the tips. I originally thought it
was due to insufficient watering as only the tips of the leaves were
brown, but as time goes on, the leaves are increasingly turning brown.
Any advice?

Bit dark when I read your posting last night and been a bit busy this
morning at the Theatre. Did think of getting the torch last night but
decided against ;-))
Not your problem at all. It comes round every year, it's called Autumn
when all the leaves will drop on your plant, and others as well ;-))
Mike
--
...................................
Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.
I'm not daft! It just seemed a little early for that.