A cottage garden question.

[Alex]

I hope I can get away with a garden question on here because its a cottage garden or should I appeal to your softer side's and mention the plight of our bee population
I couldn't have a cottage garden without having lavender in it so I planted some just inside the front gate. I put plenty of gravel into the planting hole and the lavender has been quite happy flowering away for the last 3 summers. In April the lavender was fine but now it is dying back 'Box Blight' style.
Is there some virus that is killing off lavender plants ? If there is such a thing, then these things normally start in the South East of England (and spreads to 1000 feet above sea level on the side of a Welsh mountain 4 years later) I'm wondering if anyone in that part of the country is having the same type of problem ?

Alex

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Lavender Shab disease?

Rare fungal infection, spores can be transmitted by wind. Look at the stems with a magnifying glass - are there little black marks?

Or Alfa Mosaic virus?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Oh dear, what a shame. I had a problem with the french style lavender last year, and have replaced it with Hidcote which seems very robust.

 

[Alex]

Sorry I took a long time getting back to you, I admit it, I was watching the Springwatch webcams.

Many thanks to both of you. I have been out with my glasses and can't see anything on the lavender but this is probably due to my advancing years rather than there not being anything there. Not having a magnifing glass, I will have to go out with the next best thing, a pair of binoculars. If it makes the Welsh news you know who it is.

Back in a while,

Alex.

1st edit
Update -
Been out and had a look through the binoculars and yes there are little black dots on it, as well as cuckoo spit but that has only appeared with the last 2 weeks, so I will assume that there is no connection. Is there anything that I can do about it ? I'm not 1 for using chemicals because the whole point of having it was to attract bee's into the garden.

Alex.
2nd edit, It is Hidcote by the way, I knew the gorgeous French stuff would not survive the winter here.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Did you give it a hard prune? It needs that every year. And the soil has not been enriched? And it's in a sunny spot?

If it's looking moribund I'd be tempted to cut it to within an inch of its life and see what happens next year. I always do that, and 9 times out of 10 stuff re-grows healthier.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

If it is Shab disease I don't think there is much to do other than destroy the affected plants (burn), as the spores can just infect other plants. The black dots are the spores - if that is what you have.

 

[lou]

Hi Alex
I'm in SE Wales too and have just joined the Monmouthshire Meadows Group (£10) because I want to create a meadow to increase the diversity of what was previously pasture and attract more insect life. If you join and want to create even a tiny piece of meadow, they send a botanist around to check out and count your plants and suggest how you might go about increasing the wildflowers - may also diagnose your lavender problem? This usually entails stopping mowing during the summer so has all kinds of advantages!

It was their open day yesterday and the most diverse 'meadow' was a strip of bank along a driveway in suburban Monmouth which had wild orchids growing on it and an apparently rare, though rather undistiguished looking, helleborine.

 

[biffvernon]

Lavender doesn't last forever (at least not with us) but it's pretty easy to grow from seed. You can sow it now and then plant out the small plants next spring. You'll get loads of plants from one packet of seed.

 

[Alex]

Thanks again for all your replies and sorry I didn't get back to you until now.
Have been out looking at my poor lavender for the last half an hour , every bit that isn't dry and crispy, has a flower head on it.
Joce and Chris - It seems such a shame to cut them back, not sure wether to follow FamilyWiggs advice and remove all of the plants and burn them. I have even gone on the RHS website, thinking that the disease or virus could live in the soil, waiting for me to replant it but the RHS search came back with nothing and I am now none the wiser. I have another group of lavender on the patio, not in the ground this time, in an old oak barrel so now I am waiting for that to start dying off too.
biffvernon I don't know wether it would be a good idea or not, to grow more plants from seed, until I know wether its safe or not. The problem is that where my current lavender is, is the driest, sunniest part of the garden and it was flourishing there until now.
lou I was at Llanfoist open gardens on Sunday quizzing everyone with lavender in their garden if they had had any problems when you were at your meadow talk. It sounds really interesting, I do love wild flowers but until we finish the side and back of the house, I don't have any garden left. Someone in the 70's was a cement junkie and not only covered the inside and outside of the house, they also did the side and rear garden. It would be nice to have a wild flower meadow at the back if that would be possible, there is scaffolding there at the moment.
Thanks again everyone,
Alex.