I'm a plant killer.... please help me change my ways...

[BertieDrapper]

Please help, I am a plant dummy and every plant we get dies!!

I have two bay trees on our drive and the leaves have all turned brown but not dropped off! Has it died? Is it salvageable?

My mum has bought me a flamingo Salix.... but our garden is a mess at the moment so it's staying in it's pot... the leaves have started dying off, I've been watering every day, as it's been warm and sunny... is that too much??

I'm so ungreen fingered, how do I keep these things alive!!! Help!

Pictures? Is the plant waterlogged? As in, sitting in a ray of water. Most (not all) plants will hate that, although pots do need a lot of watering!

Ray? Tray, even 🙄

Pics would be useful, yes.

I have two bay trees. They're in pots with free draining soil (lots of grit added to the compost) and are on pot feet in full sun. As PP has said, they'll die if they're waterlogged.

Conversely, Salix likes moisture. It might be pot bound (lift it out and see if the roots go round and round and are poking out of the pot's holes).

More generally plants need feeding too. Find out what the plant needs in terms of soil structure, water, sunlight levels and feeding. They should be OK then.

The bigger the pot the better usually. Too much direct sun can be a problem as can too much shade.

Your bay trees sound scorched.

A decorative mulch (gravel, slate chippings) can help keep moisture in but won't help if planting conditions are suboptimal.

I recall someone on here joking about spray painting their dead bay trees green!

I'll try get some pics in a bit....

The bay trees are in an east facing spot so get full sun before midday, but only went brown towards the end of the year....

Whereabouts in the country are you? Bay trees are not reliably hardy in the UK.

I'm in the South east, coastal

It could have been the wind then, and possibly either drying out or getting waterlogged, difficult to guess which one really.

Is there a sign of any new shoots at all?