Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

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Monday - July 25, 2011

From: austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Non-Natives, Transplants
Title: Newly planted Burford Holly doing poorly in Austin, TX.
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

About a month ago I bought dwarf burford holly. Now they have slowly started getting brown leaves that eventually fall off. Some of the plants have white spots on the ends. I usually check my plants everyday and keep the soil moist. Today I noticed instead of the usual dark green it's more of a faded green. I have sprayed them with fungicide twice, the most recent time two days ago. Thanks for you help.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants has a couple of questions for you; have you put your plant into the ground, or is it still in a pot? June and July generally are not good months to plant shrubs in Austin, and the continuing drought has made that even more true. Your plant could be suffering from transplant shock. This previous answer contains some useful information about this problem. If the plant is still in a pot, your need to take precautions to protect it from excess sun and heat. Black plastic posts can absorb enough heat from the sun that can damage the roots. I’ m curious about the use of fungicide.

Burford holly is not a native plant and therefore is not in our database. Here are two websites that can tell you more about this plant.
University of Arkansas

Homeandgardenideas.com

Native Plants

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Monday - July 25, 2011

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