To ask for your help in solving a crime?

[LBF2020]

Click bait! I'm sorry..

I have a lovely hebe bush in the garden. This year it has shot up and was as tall as me. I've come in to the garden today and it looks as though something has cannonballed it. Suspects as follows;

-deer. not impossible, we back on to a field and we have stock fencing. But why would they want to sit on my hebe bush?
-rain. It rained overnight, but not very heavily?

• mole. We have a lot of moles, could they have disturbed the root system?
• golden retriever. Again not impossible but he likes an audience, so if he were to do it I'm sure he would wait until I was watching.
• axe murderer. I'm home alone this weekend so I hope it's not this option.

Any other suspects? Can the hebe be saved? I managed to find a before photo for reference!

Maybe the weight of it has just caused it to collapse? Can you give it a prune and stake it back up?

obviosly the other options are all possible but I’m hoping it’s not the axe murderer as his axe will now be unpleasantly blunt.

Cats love hebe. I had one who would lurk in the middle and leap out at you. It's a bit high up for that though really. If it was winter I'd say snow!

Aw what a shame! I think it’s savable though, could you stake it?

Looks like it's overgrown and got too heavy for itself.
You can certainly do a small prune once the flowers have died and then do a hard prune in late winter/early spring.

They're quite resilient.

Stray elephant 🐘

Probably not an axe murderer, just an ordinary unarmed prowler sussing you out for a break in and then he fell in the Bush. Glad to be of service

Crop circle.

No idea, but I think I want to swap lives... bedraggled hebe or not!

We had a bush like that which one day just keeled over - it was waterlogged at the base which wasn't visible under the canopy. That corner of the garden is not soggy, it was all a bit weird.

It's the beautiful garden...the golden retriever...and above all, the peaceful weekend! 😁

I love a good bush as much as the next person, but I’m disappointed this isn’t a murder mystery type situation.

This. It's the only logical answer.

These replies have made me day.

@MatildaTheCat this made me laugh 😂 I'm going to stake it tomorrow. It looks a lot livelier this afternoon.

@supertedlasso our neighbours have a cat! Lots of nesting birds around so he could be the culprit!

@WishILivedInThrushGreen that's good to know. I wasn't sure when would be best to prune.

@thecurtainsofdestiny 🤣

@5foot5 Double locking the doors tonight

@NewBootsAndRanty Aliens! Should I watch Signs tonight?

@BudgetTarzan water logging is definitely a possibility as our garden does get very wet.

@Undertheoldlindentree
Thanks. It's lovely at this time of year.
Have a pic of the goldie. Who is doing his best impression of a scary doggo protecting his boundary.

@ElizaJones it could be a murder mystery by the morning