Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Amateur Gardening

    Ask John Negus

    Jan 04, 2022 4 minutes

    John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week

    How can I help my cotinus to thrive?

    Q Our purple cotinus is affected by powdery mildew and all its leaves have fallen off. Is there anything we do about this?

    Steve and Julia Bailey (via email))

    A Cotinus coggygria ‘Purpurea’ is a deciduous plant so the fact that it dropped its leaves in the autumn is not anything to worry about. Powdery mildew tends to appear when plants are dry at the roots but growing in a humid atmosphere. If you can increase airflow in and around your cotinus this will help to deter the fungus from taking hold.

    A solution might be to prune

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Amateur Gardening

    Amateur Gardening5 min read
    Garden Trends Through The Decades
    Amateur Gardening was founded in 1884 during the Victorian horticultural era of the country house head gardener. Until the world wars, gardening was epitomised by him (it was always a man) and his staff using hand tools to grow produce for the house
    Amateur Gardening3 min read
    AG Anniversary anecdotes
    What instantly comes to mind was the wonderful tongue-in-cheek re-titling of a piece I wrote; on frozen pools and ponds, on letting noxious gases out, and debating whether it was so wrong to smash the ice if that was deemed necessary - “Bob says now’
    Amateur Gardening5 min read
    THE SELF-SUFFICIENT (ish) GARDENER
    Nurture precious green spaces around and inside you I scramble over boxes that have been sitting in my office for 14 years and counting. I am looking for external hard drives with garden photos on them, the older the drive, the bigger it is, like I’m

    Related Books & Audiobooks