Pests, Diseases and Cures

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

cheap and almost bomb proof and fast growing its not surprising they used so often, you can get them looking good but they'll never look quite as good as loads of other hedges

Gunnera manicata are a bog garden, pool marginal plant and they get huge; seriously huge. See here Gunnera manicata | giant rhubarb Bogs/RHS Gardening and Gunnera I've tried both G magellenica and G prorepens, both small species; they lasted a couple of years here in Devon and then dry summers...

I dont really know how they do it, but the plants on sale often really dont look capable of growing the amount of fruit they have on them. I know most are grafted and some are not, I get the feeling that they are grown with a free rootrun and then potted up a few weeks prior for sale complete...

A basic principle when there has been a very hard, prolonged cold spell and there is damage to plants is to wait a few months to see how things recover. A lot of plants/shrubs/hedges are remarkably resilient.

It looks like mould to me, maybe you wet the leaves too much.

Many thanks for your help folks. As we just grow flowers & shrubs at home I'll wait until compost is rotted down & use on flower beds as suggested.

Again I so appreciate the replies. I will take it out carefully and replace the compost. I will stand it also on some pebbles. Water more and be cognisant of any munchers. I’ll be back with a picture in a month or so.

Grandma used to fill her bath and place all her houseplants to submerge them over night. She said they couldn't hold their noses for that long !

It's closely related to Neem, no? I tried a decoction of leaves and seeds from my Melia tree on the woolly scale rampaging through my citrus trees. It did seem to help, but like most treatments it needs a regular follow-up until the life-cycle is wiped out.

Not sure but it could be sooty mould from an earlier aphid attack. Aphids are often the carriers of viruses.

Thanks again for all the input. I will hold off till the new growth starts in spring.

Thank you @JWK for your speedy response. Its conforting to know it may come back OK and it isn't just us. We have spotted others doing the same here. Facing the loss of two prunes trees in the new year so was dreading the prospect of a bald garden, not that baldness is itself a bad thing, she...

I was watching a programme some time ago and I think it was in Scotland where a specific hoverfly larvae can only live in the hollow rotting stumps of felled trees.

In the last couple of weeks I've planted out lots of Pansies on the balcony. For the time being they seem fine but I worry that the same itsy bitsy tiny grey white aphids will kill them off another year.

i’ve just discovered there’s something called Dandelion Aphids, so they could be those! Thank you for your help.

@noisette47 It's not much different over here either! There are so many people who want to trick you out of your money! I'm very suspicious of all these claims & like to read other people's opinions & investigate a bit for myself before giving up my cash!

Wouldn't like to guess other than the leaves look vaguely like some of the larger leaved cotoneasters. Looks dead to me I'd just cut out all the dead stuff and see what happens.

Um...they don't necessarily die. Mine was very stressed and flowered several years in a row, but as it got lots of rainwater through the winters and springs it recovered. I certainly didn't have time to cut the flowers off! How about cutting out the flowered canes, @Stanley2 , give it a good,...