Some of you might remember that I wrote about geums a few weeks ago. Sometimes those of you out there are kind enough to respond to my ramblings with comments of your own. They are mostly charming and occasionally include various garden questions, which I do my best to answer when I can – bearing in mind that I am mostly a poncey designer rather than being a Pippa Greenwood-style pest queen.
Anyway, in that geum post a chap called Bruce asked about his wisteria that had “gone limp and lifeless as if hit by frost. It flowered extremely well but there are no pods and none of the exuberant growth”. I didn’t have much idea what could have caused this problem, so wasn’t able to offer a useful solution.
In a very spooky Twilight Zone moment, the very next week my wisteria started doing exactly the same thing. First the leaves looked a bit droopy and exhausted, then they turned crispy and finally fell off, leaving the plant naked and neglected. Since then I have heard of three other wisterias that have suffered the same fate. It is very annoying as it was just beginning to make a difference to a large wall – there was a ceanothus there before but that got frosted to death.
I asked my wise friend Nigel Colborn and he says that it is probably a specific wisteria disease like a phytophthora. He also suggested honey fungus, but I checked for mushroomy smells and found nothing.
So generally I am a bit stumped, but thought that if I wrote about it somebody might know. Maybe Pippa will ride in like the US Cavalry to solve the mystery…
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Did you check the roots? It may not be in a pot but if the soil is dry then could vine weevil grubs be a possibility?
I hope you both remembered to take off the plant lables or any close fitting ties on the main stem. I heard this problem on a GQT session and despite years of experience the gardener had still left a tie so tight it choked the plant to death. Commonly happens just after as summer growth surge kiks in. Always check the plug.
I am having a problem with my young (4yrs.)pleached lime hedge. One of the trees is having a problem that does not affect the others. Last summer all of its leaves suddenly went brown and crispy and fell off. It kept its buds and this spring although later than the others it did spring back to life. However the same thing has happened again. Within a couple of days the leaves go brown and the tree defoliates itself. I have checked for insects, none. A fungal disease would surely affect the others in the hedge. So I had a look at the roots. Moles have made runs directly under the tree which is preventing the roots from taking up water. Should I dig around the roots to try and settle the earth back round them or will this make matters worse?
I am having trouble with some of the leaves turning yellow and falling off. I have sprayed for insects (saw japanese beetles before) but no sign now and still continues on. Any ideals?
I also lost my Wisteria after 6 healthy
years of growth the flowers appeared but
did not open then shivelled up and died
the leaves then fell off. cutting some
of the stems back they had also died
and I do not have any explanation
I planted my wisteria against a fence. Unfortunately, it was a shady damp area of my garden. Obviously it didn’t flower/ Once I realised my mistake I transplanted it into a pot and all of the ‘buds’ became brances with leaves. However, they are all drooping, I know the cause but does anyone know what I can do. I was surprised that started growing any at all and now I am a little disappointed. Cany anything be done to save it? Any help would be appreciated.
This is getting more and more mysterious. I asked Helen Yemm (who has a fabulous advice column in the Telegraph) about the Mysterious Case of the Wilting Wisteria and she has received lots of letters so we are not alone.
However, she is also stumped and so, at the moment is the RHS. I will keep an eye on things on your behalf.
WE HAVE HAD A WISTERIA FOR 15 YEARS AND HAS BEEN FANTASTIC.LOTS OF FLOWERS AND NEW GROWTH WHICH I PRUNE. THIS YEAR THE FLOWERS DID NOT OPEN AND THERE IS NO NEW GROWTH.ALSO WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE WHICH HIS ONLY ABOUT 5YEARS OLD AND THERE ARE NO LEAVES AT ALL ON IT ONLY BUDS BUT THE PLANT IS STILL SHOWING GREEN UNDER BARK. I NEED SOME SUGESTIONS.
I have the same wilting problem with a four year old wisteria against a wall in a sunny position. It’s about 8ft tall and has grown well up to now.
I have a similar wilting problem on a seven year old dwarf cherry tree – Compact Stella. It has been planted in the ground for about five years. It flowered well this year as usual and produced a good crop, however in the last ten days the leaves have wilted and turned brown and crispy. I cannot find any sign of pest or disease. Other plants in the same bed are all fine.
I have two wisteria growing against a sunny wall, one blue one and one white one (japanese?) anyway, the white one has just suddenly wilted and looks like it died whilst the other one, only 6 feet away looks fine. very odd.
after 13 years of correct pruning and supreme flowering, our wisteria has produced flowers and just died. How bizarre! What can have happened this year? Is it really dead or if I leave til next year will it return to normal?(that’s me , ever hopeful) I have noticed a large number of small black slugs(or slug like creatures around the base of the plant). Any thoughts anyone? I am surprised at the number of losses of well established wisteria this year.
Elaine
I have had a lovely mauve wisteria for about 10 years and noticed exactly the same thing happening. At first I put it down to the very heavy rain knocking the leaves off but it just hasn’t stopped and now the branches are looking bare. I will see if there is a mushroomy smell as I didn’t know about that. It is very curious that it is happening to so many people.
I planted two wisteria plants this spring.They were both doing great until a month ago when one started turning yellow and now it is dying.They are about twenty feet apart.The other one is fine.Any ideas what I can do ?
I planted a new wisteria in the spring it has flowered and now, this last week the leaves have gone brown and fallen off, I don’t know what to do. I live in France and the weather has been really hot could this be the problem? There is no sign of bugs.
I have a very old 20ft high wisteria spread across the front of our house. In the last few weeks it is turning from green to yellow to almost white. It was producing new growth up until then. Has anyone heard of any new from the RHS on this subject?
I’ve had a healthy wisteria for about 6 years. The flowers were a bit smaller than usual this year but it now appears to be completely dead: all the leaves have shrivelled up and died.
I can only add to the depressing list of wisteria news by reporting that my 8/9 year old Wisteria started turning yellow a few weeks ago. Most of the leaves have now fallen off and I fear the worst. It had only begun to flower in the last couple of years so I am most upset. As it’s been an unusually wet july/August in England, could it be waterlogging? I think there’s different problems here. Some peoples W’s are turning Brown and shrivelled (eg Amanda in France) whereas my leaves went yellow, then fell off.
Our wisteria was planted in a sunny spot and trained to grow up the outside wall of the house about 11 years ago. It has successfully grown without trouble. In the spring 2009 it produced its flowers in abundance followed by the leaves. The leaves started to wilt around June. The whole of the shrub is now completely dead. No local environmental changes. We would appreciate some advice.
It sounds like we need to look for common themes here. On another site, I read something about Wisteria’s turning yellow if they do not have adequate drainage. Since this summer has been cooler and wetter than most in a long, long time, I wonder if this is the reason? In circumstances where one plant is doing fine and the other failing, are the failing plants in a wetter location (at least at the root level)?
Sadly our nine year old Wisteria has also succumb, the leaves started to turn yellow bit by bit after typically vigorous growth up until late June. It now only has a sprinkling of pale dying leaves left and the garden looks more like Autumn with dried leaves blowing all over. I do wonder about waterlogged roots in July as this is when it really went downhill … here’s to next spring!!
Yes Jon, we do need to find a common theme. I take back what I said about two different kinds of symptoms. My leaves have gone yellow and fallen off and now brown and crispy and falling off… and all over the garden like Iian’s. The plant has really taken a downturn this weekend (but it hasn’t rained for a while) and I think is dead. The plant is in a dry spot but my soil is clay so the roots might well have been waterlogged through this summer. Is anyone’s dead wisteria in free draining sandy soil?
We live in outer London, on the Essex side and have had very little rain over
the last month. Our Wisteria has flowered and looked well until the last few days when it began to wilt at the tips. Today, in the space of an afternoon the plant visibly drooped. The leaves are yellow/brown with dark brown patches. The soil is free draining.
I would guess Anna’s problem with her Stella cherry is most likely to be fire-blight.
I reported a problem with mine in July this year, but have now noticed new growth shoots coming from the bottom of the plant, so hopefully this is good news.
I’m sorry to hear about everybody’s problems with their Wisteria’s, but I am also a little bit relieved as I thought it was just mine. Our Wisteria is huge ( probably holding up the front of the house actually)and I would guess it’s really old too,(have only lived in the house for 18 months).It had got out of control but was beautifully green and lush.We had it professionally pruned and thinned and although it flowered it now looks totally pathetic and rather ugly, with all the same symptoms everybody has mentioned.What are other people going to do ? should I give it time and see what happens next year or is it a lost cause?
I noticed this same wilting in my garden some plants are fine others are wilting including the cherry tree an indian bean tree a new ginkgo boloba has very tiny leaves and some walnut saplings..also the walnuts from the tree are all blackened and wisened inside and along my flower border various leaves are wilting too…is it something to do with the water table getting low?
From Arul Durai, Burgess Hill
Here are two more cases of sudden deaths of Wisteria —
My fully grown 15 yr old wisteria (Japanese Wisteria with pale pink flowers) in full bloom in May started to dry up — first the buds then the leaves, and practically died by the end of June. The tree obviously is unaffected below the graft as green shoots are still growing vigorously from below the grafting point. I have decided to dig up the old plant and replace it with a Chinese Wisteria (blue flowers) this time. I will be grateful for any explanation on the old plant’s death and advice regarding the replacement.
Today I have heard from Sue Harper –
I have had exactly the same problem with my blue Japanese Wisteria which is about 20 years old and until this spring was a stunning flowering plant. My plant is now bereft of all leaves apart from the vigorous foliage at the base of the plant. I would like to know if the plant will come back again next spring or like Arul Durai I will have to face the fact that it is dead and I will have to replace it.
My 10 year old wisteria appears to have died this summer. I have just been clearing the ground around it and one of the lower branches has come away from the main stem. The wood inside the branch appears to be completely dead.
I have the lilac/blue variety, (10 years old) and it now seems as dead as a dodo. I trimmed it back and am going to leave it till the spring to see if anything happens. very sad as it had just begun to flower…. after years of tender loving care (and frustration)
Our wisteria is about 90 years old and grows all round our garden. Up until last year it was extremely healthy and full of flowers twice a year but the the leaves started to wilt and some of the main branches have died and snapped off. There seems to now be some pale brown patches along one of the main lower branches, with almost a worm like small mass in one part. We are devastated as the whole plant seems as though it is dying. Is there any way we can rescue it – it is part of the family now?!
My wisteria succumbed to this last summer – it has flowered now for the last 9 years but as I look at it now there is nothing, not a sign of new growth. I was hoping it would recover but obviously not. Now what? do I give it up for dead??
Like so many of your commentators my 10 yr old wisteria bloomed, wilted and died (?) last June. I have left it and now there is new growth from the base. However I fear that I will have to remove all of the old wood.
I belive that our 25 year old wisteria has the ssame issues. It seems to bloom evey other year. Last year it bloomed but not as it normally would have for the 2nd year blooming. Then we began to notice the dead branches. We trimed most of them out. then this spring we see that we have twice as many dead branches. They seem to have brown slashed on some of them. No signs of bugs or any fungas. I am thinking it is dying. What is the age for wisteria?
I am sorry that many of you are still losing Wisteria.
As a follow up to this post may I refer you to this:
http://blog.gardenersworld.com/2009/09/14/wilting-wisteria-an-update/
It contains the answer from the RHS.
Not very encouraging, I’m afraid.
I have a Wisteria plant on my patio which has been beautiful for many years previously. I am not a gardener and have relied apon this lovely plant each spring to add colour to this area of our garden. This spring I have had the same problems as everyone else, although interestingly, the purple flowers are still in bloom but from the bottom up!!! The leaves are all a yellowy brown; I just sit by and watch helplessly and hope that it will survive!!!
My 5 year old wisteria was in full bud , green, not yellow anywhere, until today. We had a bad frost last night, and it is now completely wilted. It looks just like Clematis wilt. Like everyone else, do we leave it to recover, or cut it right back????
What can I do about my wisteria? Is there any cure or is it doomed
I have a 4 year old wisteria bloomed beautifully every year but flowers appeared open fully, I have some small leaves but they are very limp and the flower buds are falling off, they never properly bloomed. Help!
My wisteria sinensis is about 10 years old and covers a long brick wall. Up until the day before yesterday it was blooming well and the perfume was fabulous. It seems almost overnight the flowers have gone limp and shrivelling and falling off. The leaf seems to be growing though. What is this?
In June 2009 our wisteria suddenly wilted. The whole plant covering the entire front of our house appeared to die. It was about 10 years old and had been doing extremely well until then. Earlier this spring I checked for new growth and none found. I cut the wisteria to ground level and found rot internally. The good news is that new shoots are now sprouting by the dozen
My giant Wisteria, over 30 years old, covering two sides of a large house and up ’til 2008 healthy, vigorous and rampantly growing and flowering is now in extremis. In 2008 it flowered magnificently then sent out long tendrils as usual. Then suddenly these tendrils died back and the leaves fell. The second flowering in August did not take place. In 2009 there were very few flowers and few leaves and many brances had died. This year 2010 whole branches, some 20ft long are dead and rotten while on others green shoots have sprouted somewhat weedily from parts of the main trunk. There were a few flowers and branches with leaves and these are green at present…..I have searched the web for information on pests and diseases, checked images of the likely culprits and then checked my wisteria with a magnifying glass on its leaves, stems, branches, trunk and going to the main root. I cannot find any sign at all of the scale insects (re recent news 2010) nor of phytophora ramorum (recent news re oaks and ornamental trees and shrubs) nor of honey fungus or crown gall. There is no sign of a graft below which I might search for suckers and I cannot see any healthy suckers either. The plant is not over or underwatered, it has been properly and regularly pruned. I am a microbiologist by training and I do recognise fungi when I see them and I do not see any of these mentioned. However the leaves are mottled and the bark has a slightly rusty red colour in parts so there could be a systemic infection and/or physiological condition. I now see that many gardeners all over the country are having similar problems with their Wisteria and when 30 year old specimens go down all over the country I do think that the RHS could attempt a far better response than they have done to James A-S. We can all access the web and I’m sure that most of us have already checked out these basic facts accordingly so general so-so advice is just not good enough. What we need from the RHS is specific help with this problem that shows a more pro-active approach. I am not a member, but how about the RHS has a look at a Wisteria of an RHS member, or indeed several members with this now common problem, attempts to identify a specific cause scientifically and then gives more specific advice in an on-line article – that I would certainly join up to access. Many of us are not new gardeners and are frustrated and sad at the obvious sickness of these plants and a lack of knowledge about what to do with them.
My 6 year old wisteria flowered beautifully this year, though the leaves didn’t seem to develop fully and it has now, quite suddenly, withered and appears to be dying. No new shoots at all.
We have had an incredibly dry Spring and Summer. Our soil is clay. I’m so very sad. It hurts. It does help to know that other gardeners are experiencing similar problems. Early signs of climate change?
Think I have found the culprit. Severley pruned back the wisteria today. (Husband holding the ladder) Found something that looks a wee bit like a woodlouse, only much smaller. Rather the size of a slightly squashed’ in shape, ladybird and a brownish red in colour.Easily dislodged with finger,then explodes with hundreds of white egg looking things. The host appears to be an empty shell. We have burned all cuttings. These ‘parasites’? appear to be more on the tips of the plant. Not as numerous as I would have expected to devastate my wisteria so easily and quickley. What is the prognosis please? Will the plant renew itself?
My wisteria has been in for about 4 years and has always had really healthy leaves. It flowered for the first time this year followed by lots of heathly looking leaves. Over the last few days the leaves have fone really limp as is underwatered. I have had a look but cannot find any bugs on it. I have sprayed it anyway with an insecticide and will let you know what happens over the next week.
Penny: In their defence the RHS does not know everything. They are generally very diligent in hunting down the causes of things like this. They are just a bit stumped at the moment.
Beryl: I honestly don’t know if your plant will revive. It seems unlikely that these bugs have caused the demise of your plant: especially as there is no other record of other wisteria wilt sufferers reporting bug infestation. If you have any bugs left then the RHS will definitely be able to identify the pest.
Val: Keep us informed.
two years ago my wisteria decided not to flower, last year it again decided it wasn’t going to flower and in summer the leaves turned a pale yellow and went crinkly and generally just wilted – I blamed the weather! This year no flowers but the leaves were a really good colour and looked really healthy then….late june the leaves went all yellow and crinkly again and the new shoots just died back.
I had a look at the stems and although I didn’t notice them at first I found some scale insects at the end of last years growth. I had a look on the internet and found pictures of the dreaded wisteria scale…..Yup looks familiar!!!!!
Armed with systemic insecticide its had two thorough coatings and so far so good, its lost the crinkly look and the new leaves and shoots are looking really healthy.
A bit worrying if the RHS think its confined to London area because I’m pretty sure thats what was going on with mine and Im in Hampshire
Seems like this is the problem, and the outlook does not look good:
http://bit.ly/biI4Cf
my whisteria is wilting and the leaves are falling off it flowered earlier this year and every year for the past 10 year
There is some good advice to be found here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/7676728/Wisteria-in-danger-from-invasive-bug.html
Thank you for your messages.The Telegraph report says it all. My once beautiful wisteria appears to be completely wiped out.Almost certainly wisteria scale. No sign of life whatsover. Last year the foliage was so dense we had blackbirds and pigeons happily nesting there. I too cannot believe that something so small could have done so much damage. Many thanks…
BerylM
My wisteria has the same problems as the recent comments, one day ok the next crispy, crinckly and very sad looking. However, where the wisteria is planted its bottom 2 feet are covered by my lavender bush and the few stems from this area growing through are not affected. Can you comment on this, my other wisteria at the front of the house is not affected, as yet!
Our Wisteria is 30years old & suddenly the leaves have turned yellow, dried up & are falling off. It has happened very fast. Seems we are not alone:( I have read about Crow gall bacteria, but is there anything we can do?