What's happened and can I fix it

[Mamalicious16]

Bought these ball plants from B&Q last September - they look like I haven't watered them but I have. One has started to show life again and the other has not. What's happened - and what do I do to fix it?

They both look like they got fried by the heat. You may have watered them but it might not have been enough. Are they pot bound? My suggestion is to repot both into bigger pots, fresh compost and some slow release food, trim off any properly dead bits (no green under the bark) and then wait. Hopefully they will recover. Is one of them in a black garden centre pot? If so that is part of the problem as the plastic gets very hot and will have made the roots overheat - repot it into ceramic, wooden, terracotta anything but garden centre plastic!

I have an azalea (in the ground) which looked completely dead, but on very close inspection was hanging in there. We had some rain (I did water the plants during the summer but the clay dries out very quickly) and the temperature is much lower and loads of green leaves have appeared. I've pruned the straggly dead bits and in a few weeks I think it will be fine.

It looks like box. Its probably box blight as i cant see any webby stuff that you see with box catterpillar. I would bin them and get something different

Not in original pots - reported in larger ceramic pots and added more compost when I bought them. Recently topped up with compost again

Do they have a dish, or did the water flow straight out the bottom of the pot? How much and how often did you water?