Friday, September 28, 2007

Eucalyptus plant

I planted a eucalyptus plant, about 18” tall, back in May in a perfect spot in the yard. Although I was hesitant about planting the eucalyptus in the summer, it took off like mad, branches growing, new leaves sprouting, it was simply doing wonderful. Suddenly as the drought and heat really started to kill off my garden, the leaves of the eucalyptus started to turn brown and die. Now the entire plant is brown & brittle. I have never lost a eucalyptus this way, mine seem to get caught in ice storms. My question is: do you think the eucalyptus is dead? Or will one of the nodes survive and sprout back up? If it has a chance I do not want to dig it up, but it really looks dead. If there is no hope, I will plant another one this fall. Thank you for all your help! Suzy P., Semora, NC

Anne's response:

If you have scraped the bark of the Eucalyptus and it looks brown, not green, just underneath the bark the plant is dead. A lot of plants that were put in the ground this spring did not make it through the summer. The heat pulled water out of leaves faster than the developing root system good pull it into the plant.

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