Gulftide False Holly shrub browning at top.

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    mikepamikepa
    Greenhorn
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    I live in SE PA zone 5 and planted the Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Gulftide’
    false hollies this past May in a part sun/shade area. They’ve been growing great and due to our horrible heat/humidity this year, I’ve been watering every few weeks. I heavily mulched 3” high and 5’ wide around the plants but left open space close to the base trunk.
    This morning I noticed one of the 6’ tall shrubs spindly Center Top branch is all Brown? These center branches seem to be growing rapidly but this one shrub seems to be in trouble..
    Any suggestions? I have not fertilized these shrubs since planting about 3-4 months ago and they were planted in a rich soil mix of topsoil, garden soil.

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    micky cdMicky CD
    Greenhorn
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    Hello mikepa I’m Micky  😛

    Strange because it sure sounds like you did everything by the book! From what I understand, only one of your shrubs is in trouble. How many did you plant overall?

    When only a single shrub has problems, it might be something underground that’s causing it. I had a hedge once and a portion would never make it, always dying off, and I realized a pipe was running underground there and there was a huge cement block that made the soil there very thin.

    Do you have a picture to share? sometime if it’s a disease that’s what will help tell the problem

    if not well just cut the leading brown stem already, sometimes random death will hit a branch and you never know why. Clearing the dead wood will make space for new shoots to replace it.

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    allieallie
    Greenhorn
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    Maybe a bird broke it off? They like landing on prickly leaves. Young shoots are fragile and when a birds alights sometimes it breaks it at the stem. I’ve seen this happen on occasion, not yet with an osmanthus, though.

Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)