Calistemon dying back. Is this patch cursed (or fungussy or something?)

[JaneDonne]

Hi all,

I have a tiny (4ft by 1ft) patch of ground between us and the next door neighbour. When we moved in five years ago it was three privet plants which all died back witin a year. The hedge kind of carries on round to my neighbour's hedge iyswim and his have started dying too, it seems to be moving along his hedge.

In place of the dead privet I moved in a bottle brush plant and an azelea. Both did really well (apart from one or two dead branches on the bottle brush which I removed last year) but suddenly a month or so ago the bottle brush plant started to die back really quickly and I took it out today (sobs). The roots might well be dead. I really know bugger all about gardening but they seemed brittle and/or dried up.

There's a cleamtis in there too and a few tulips etc. They're all doing well at the moment. But I'm frightened to move anything else in there in case it dies. And I wonder if I can bring the bottle brush back from the dead at all? As I say, very little gardening knowledge. Lots of enthusiasm though :)

Front is full sunlight south facing and we're in London if that helps?

Actually it's probably more like 6 or 7 ft... Just picturing DH lying down in front of the front door. Not that he does that...

Bump.

I haven't grown a Callistemon myself but I do know they can be a bit tender although a sunny spot in London should be ok. If you scratch the surface of the bark with a fingernail is it green underneath? If yes you could cut it back and see if anything happens or replace with something cheap and reliable like a buddleia to 'test' the soil. Plant with plenty of garden compost or bought soil improver - maybe the soil under the old privet hedge is exhausted.

The RHS website might have something about diseases affecting privet.

Thank you :)

I thought it might be something really simple like 'Soil Infesting Woody Plant Die Back Disease' that everyone else knew about but me! Seems like it might not be.

Soil does look a bit rubbish. I'll dig a load of compost into it and maybe just do little bits of tulips etc for this year and pop something else in when I get a feel for how the clematis etc does this year maybe...

Perhaps box blight or honeyfungus affected the privet and the underlying soil? Good nutrition always helps plants survive so sticking in some compost seems sensible. Maybe that spot was too cold over the winter for the callistemon: they don't like frost pockets.