I realize this plant isn't a true hydrangea, but it's in the Hydrangeaceae family, so I thought I would post my question here. If anyone thinks I'll get faster answers elsewhere on the forum, please let me know.
My plant came up bright green and gorgeous this spring, but now it looks weird. The veins in *every* leaf have turned a dark, purply black. It looks like a zombie plant.
I have tried researching, but can't come up with anything. Does anyone have any ideas?
It lives in part shade with a couple hours filtered morning sun, but even then, it's shaded by the leucothoes.
I should note that it rained EVERY day in late May, all of June, and the first 2 weeks of July, but the weather has been gorgeous since mid July, with an average of one inch of rainfall every week except last week (no rain) and not too many hot, humid days.
Aside from goth veins, the plant looks good. Tall, perky, bushy, but still too early in the year for it to have formed flower buds.
Why would the leaves turn this color when they should be a bright, uniform, emerald green? I see no evidence of insect munching. And most of the other plants in this bed (leucothoe, hydrangea arborescens, astilbe, and ilex) look fine.
Except for one: the kalmia angustifolia also has that odd dark marking on its leaves, with most of the darkness in the center vein and bleeding out toward the edge of each leaf.
What does it mean? This discoloration is uniform -- that is, there is no sign of leaf spot or fungus, not that I really know what I am looking for because obviously I don't even know how to look up this problem on the internet. ;-)
Why does Kirengeshoma palmata show black veins in leaves?
I looked up your question and it sounds like that is how it is supposed to look.
Can you post a picture?
bookreader451, would you mind sharing your source, saying dark veins are normal?
Black veins are not what is shown in my books or on Google images: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=kirengeshoma+palmata&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=WiaASoKUBZHeMbGaye4C&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1
It is also not how my plant appeared last year (see uploaded image).
When the plant was healthy, the veins were prominent/noticeable, but they were approximately the same color as the leaves. Not a single black vein.
I'll try to snap some images of the plant this afternoon and upload them here.
This message was edited Aug 10, 2009 9:05 AM
ecrane, I'll have to do it after work. But you can see the healthy image I just uploaded.
Yes, please do post a pic later showing how it looks now--there are plenty of pics of healthy ones in PF to compare to but it would really help to see the pic of it with the symptoms you describe.
I double checked and it said "deep veining" not dark veining. That is what I get for looking things up quick for work.....sorry
Have you fertilized it? sometimes leaf color changes are do to mineral deficiencies.
Good tip, thanks, bookreader451. I have not fertilized that garden or any for that matter. We had so much rain, I missed my opportunity, so I was planning on a half dose in the fall. I've been driving around with a 50 pound bag of Hollytone in my car since April, which makes it smell a bit like old poo.
Now, I just need to find out what kirengeshoma likes to eat. Not sure if it wants hollytone, but I can do MiracleGro at least. Or fish emulsion.
I hope to leave work within the hour and will upload my kooky plant pictures some time mid evening.
One other strange thing I noticed this morning, while watering that same garden, is that a few of the hydrangea leaves were curled up on themselves, almost like a cocoon. When I gently pried them apart, they sticky, but no bugs were inside.
I'll try to get a pic of that, too.
Diseases and pests are all new to me. I saw my first garden slug last week. I put out a dish of beer and sent the slugs off to their final happy hour.
Here's a closeup of a k. palmata leaf.
And here's a shot of the kalmia. Same dark veining.
And here's that weird crumbly-leaf thing on my white dome hydrangea.
Oops, forgot to attach pic of the hydrangea, and you can't edit/add pics after the fact, I guess.
I am wondering if they all have some kind of fungal infection from the high humidity all summer (RAIN!)
Whatever's going on with the Kirengeshoma does not look fungal to me. Fungal problems usually show up as spots, irregular brown areas, things like that, and the Kir. leaves look way too uniform. A nutrient deficiency would be one possibility although I'm not sure exactly what nutrient would cause that. If you haven't fertilized in a while though it might not hurt to do that (use a balanced fertilizer with micronutrients) and see if it gets better.
The spots on the Kalmia might be fungal--note the irregularity in the brown spots. At least from what I can see, it looks like you've just got random brown areas on the leaves, it doesn't seem to be all through the veins like the Kirengeshoma so I don't think it's the same problem. You can't do anything about rain and humidity, but if you do have to give it any supplemental watering I'd try to avoid watering in the evening, and if you have to use overhead watering (sprinkler, hose, etc) try to be careful just to water the soil and not splash water on the leaves.
So I can still fertilize (lightly) now without causing any winter weakness? That always confused me, because I read never to fertilize after July, but my Holly-tone bag recommends giving a half dose in late fall.
I just Googled +kirengeshoma + fertlizer, and I can see it needs a 5-5-5. I don't think I have ever seen that kind, but all garden centers must carry it
I walked around my gardens for over an hour this morning, looking very closely at everything. I am convinced my hydranges have Cercospora leaf spot. I'd started a thread about the odd spots in early June (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/998243/), but the spots are much worse now.
I have no idea how to treat that, but if I take some of the sick leaves to a trusted garden center, they can probably steer me in the right direction. I'll bring a kirengeshoma leaf, too.
I hope it's not anthracnose. Some of those spots have worn through and become actual holes. The plants that looks the worst are the new 'Blue Wave' hydrangeas. All my other hydranges have very few spots, and the rhodies look great. I guess some plants do better in soggy conditions than others.
Next year I'll put out little umbrellas over all my shrubs, lol.
I'm not sure when is the latest that you can fertilize in your area, hopefully someone else can advise you on that. As far as the 5-5-5, all that's really telling you is to use something with equal amts of the three key elements. If you find a 10-10-10 you can use half the recommended amt and that would be the same as 5-5-5-. Or for 20-20-20 you would use a quarter of the amt. And if you get something that's slightly off from those numbers, the key thing is to have a fairly balanced mix, not something that's way higher or lower on one of the #'s than the others but if it's not exactly a 1:1:1 ratio it's not the end of the world.