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[awcooley]

My husband and I are in a rental and after coming home from vacation I realized that a large bush in the back  has lost 2/3 of its leaves in about 2 months. I have been battling a new vine and wonder if this could be issue? It does not appear to be wrapping around major branches. But don’t know what could cause such rapid loss. The ivy has been here since we moved in a year ago and has not been a problem yet. New vine is less ivy like and more tendrils, almost a heart shape leaf.  Thanks for your help!  This is definitely not my area of expertise but want to do what I can to protect the yard.

[Christy]

Hi there, that’s a surprise for sure! I think the kind of vine you’re battling is bindweed; it has heart-shaped leaves, crawls everywhere and in the end twists and turns along branches. But I don’t see very much on your picture you must have gotten rid of it.

For that shrub, it’s a bit hard to tell at at distance, but it seems to me to be perhaps a lilac bush? Could you share a close-up of the leaves? Did you see it bloom? Lilac is one I had in my garden and the silhouette looks familiar. I had the same effect with lower branches dying off as soon as they were overshadowed by the taller ones. But I didn’t have it this much, but it might simply be because I pruned it.

You have to prune lilac back every year after the blooming, nearly back to the trunk for most branches. Then it sends up new branches that grow all leafy during the summer and in the following spring it’s full of flowers. Then you cut them back again!

That’s my own two cents that explain that it might be natural. If your neighbors are nice, maybe ask them if they remember how it was cared for? But you can also send pictures of leaves as they die off, if it happens still now; then I can try to see if it’s a disease or whatnot.

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