when bad things happen to good plants
in an ideal world the flowers are always perfect, leaves are never ragged and plants grow vigorously all season long. Does that sound like your garden? It sure doesn’t sound like mine. Take a tour through this gallery to see if you’ve come across these problems and find out what you can do to get yours back on the right track.
1 REVERTED FOLIAGE Is your plant with variegated foliage producing a stem or two with solid green leaves? It’s not unusual. When you spot mismatched stems during the growing season, cut them out as soon as you can. Solid green leaves produce more chlorophyll than the variegated ones, which means they’ll grow more aggressively and outcompete the variegation.
If you’ve seen dried out begonia was growing in a container at our test garden, where it got too much sun and hot, dry wind. Sunburn starts with a crispy edge then grows larger and is usually more widespread all at once than a disease. It’s easy to remedy: Move the pot to a sheltered location. While sunburn doesn’t kill the plant, it does weaken it. Remove the damaged foliage and give the container a good drink if the soil is dry. Check the potting mix daily to be sure it doesn’t get too dry again.
