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Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Creeping Grey Death.
as i noted the other day, the sweet lavender (lavandula heterophylla) seems to be struggling with overly wet feet characterized by what i am calling "creeping grey death".
the first sign is drooping foliage, still a healthy color. a day or two later the creeping grey death begins moving up the stem, turning stem and foliage grey as it progresses. the foliage then becomes crispy. it happened earlier this year; i cut out the afflicted bits and forgot about it. the plant seemed to recover fully and flourish until this latest outbreak.
today i trimmed out the obviously dead-beyond-hope-of-recovery bits (about one-half of the formerly beautiful plant). as an experiment i stripped the crispy grey foliage from a few stems that, while drooping at the top, had not yet completely succumbed.
i also -- and this was probably the most important thing -- brutally cut back the "sweet million" tomato plant that was threatening to engulf the lavender (and the mexican mint marigold).
crossing my fingers, i have hopes that the situation is still reversible because i really, really, really like this plant. i was so pleased with its performance throughout the summer that i hate to lose it now.
Posted by Erica Bess Duncan in Problems | Permalink
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