Daphne woes

plantkilla

Hi.
You'll see a lot of me here as I try to salvage my poor garden which is in a state.

First sad sight. A daphne in flower with a set of leaves justr below the flower and no other leaves further down the stem.

What could be the problem? Slugs?
It should be a beautiful little shrub.

plantkilla

I got the plant name wrong. Post and title now edited. Any suggestions?

Primrose

I love Daphne. I've got several shrubs in our garden and it is pure heaven to be out in the garden smelling their perfume in Spring. A couple of mine are looking rather sick now and losing their leaves or leaves going yellow. . I suspect this is because they're shaded by a neighbour's tall conifer whose roots are taking all the goodness and moisture out of the soil. I'm trying to compensate and help them by giving them regular doses of liquid sequestrin or liquid seaweed fertiliser. This may help yours.

The other thing may be to dig it up and put it somewhere else in the garden where conditions are more favourable, although this really should be done in autumn rather than spring. If you've got enough spare shoots left, you may want to take cuttings by snipping off two or three shoots, putting them in small pots of compost, covering with a plastic bag to keep the moisture in and store them in a not too sunny place.

When I had just one tiny Daphne bush (given to me by a friend,) this is what I did as soon as it when it grew to a sufficient size to take cuttings. Once I'd smelt its lovely perfume, I decided there was no way I could have a garden without it in spring. Hope you manage to revive yours.

I don't think it's slugs. It may just have suffered from the bad winter. Is it in an exposed place which gets lots of wind?. I find they do like the protection given by a fence.

plantkilla

It might be too shady then. I've decided lots of the plants are looking sad due to lack of light and have moved them.