Help I think my Red Robin is dying

[salsamad]

My Red Robin appears to be dying. I have one in the back garden that’s flowered and looks stunning but the one in my front garden is struggling. The red leaves are drying up and the flowers heads too and instead of shiny red they are a rusty colour and dry/dead. There is growth and flowers on the very top. We’ve checked the lower branches going into the soil and there are no cracks or breaks. It’s been doing well for over 6 years but this spring the leaves started drying out/dying. I’ve tried watering it though we have had decent rainfall. Can anyone offer advice or is there anything we can do?

I suspect it has root rot - the leaves don't appear to be diseased themselves, but the dying back, etc points to a problem with the roots. Root rot turns the roots from white to brown and they die off. I'm not sure what treatment, if any, there is.

If you're on a heavy soil it could be waterlogging in the winter damaging roots. And damage to roots (even too wet) will mean water/nutrients won't get to the rest of the plant.

You could also google Phytophthera.

I think you're just going to have to regard this as a planting opportunity ;-)