[bendipa]

Anyone grown this before? I have been growing this alpine for the first time this year. It produced a flush of beautiful blue gentian coloured flowers. These have just finished and the leaves which were a healthy looking green have now turned black and died. There are some new green shoots arising in a few places includiing some new flower buds, so I know the plant is still alive. But should the old leaves that came with the first flush have died so suddenly or is that normal behaviour for this plant?

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[Trillium]

Although it's an alpine, lithospermums are not hardy everywhere in the UK and yours obviously got a late frost that blackened the leaves. It's been a bad year for weather for all plants. The new growth is a good sign so carefully take off all the blackened growth and let the new stuff start growing. Give the soil a feed with diluted acidic fertilizer and double check it has the good drainage it needs.

In future, if you hear of late frosts predicted after its started flowering, fleece it or place some cut evergreen boughs over it for the evening as protection.

[JayG]

I've got one of those and it's just coming to the end of its flowering now - I've had a quick "Gurgle" and found some conflicting information, but my experience with it is that it's reliable, evergreen, hardy, and about 3' across after 3 years or so.

I can only assume that some tender new growth on yours got nipped by frost, but do what Trillium has suggested and I'm sure it will recover unless it's being grown in totally unsuitable conditions (heavy clay being the worst of them.)

[bendipa]

I don't think the cause is frost. It's listed by the RHS as fully hardy (H4), so I'm ruling that out. I planted LD out 3 weeks ago, and although it's been quite  cold over a few nights we haven't had frost anyway.  it's only the last week that I noticed the problem. I didn't water it since the the initial watering when planting out, believing it was drought tolerant, but have since found out thar this is not the case.

Here is a photo of the problem. New growth points have started to arise since I watered 4 days ago  I think that may have been the reason.

[JayG]

Fair enough, although not many members on here have had drought problems recently!

(You haven't added your location to your profile so we have no idea where or even in what country you are.) 

[Trillium]

Fully hardy is open to interpretation. Litheospermums are not hardy for me because my winter temps go down to -15C, often lower, and litheos can cope only down to -9C, so for me, they're an annual/half-hardy perennial. Plus some folk in the UK also have to deal with high altitudes and frost pockets where temps can drop lower than surrounding areas.

As for drought tolerant, some folk confuse this with drought resistant, which is not the same thing. Drought tolerant plants do need water regularly, but they also must have good drainage because these particular plants can't bear wet feet or they rot quickly. It's odd that yours went black from dryness because blackness is usually a frost hit. Very puzzling.

[New shoot]

Hi Bendipa.  I work in a garden centre and although Lithodora is hardy, it depends how it was grown.  A lot of stock in the spring comes from Holland where it is grown under cover and pushed on.

Take it back to where you bought it and get a replacement or refund.  You have just been unlucky and got a plant that has not made the transition to the real world successfully 

[bendipa]

Yeah, that sounds plausible. Unfortunately I haven't kept the receipt, as I wasn't expecting problems. I'm normally ok with plants but this one seems to be one of the exceptions. The plant has just thrown a few new shoots and I'm monitoring it closely to see if they turn black. If so I presume it's a soil problem, or the plant failing to root into the soil in the container. Having said that I have another alpine, Helianthemum growing next to it, and that's romping away.

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[bendipa]

For those still interested, I discovered the real cause of why my Lithodora Diffusa's leaves and stems were turning black and dying. It was fungus gnat larvae nibbling the roots. There were no white roots to be seen when I removed the plant from the container. I replanted in a yoghurt pot with fresh universal compost (fungus gnat free), not John Innes which was the previous soil. After 2 weeks of looking totally dead suddenly I see there are some new signs of life slowly returning.

For anyone wishing to  grow this plant  the compost needs to be light and airy, so a peaty soil, like Arthur Bowes Univeral or an ericaceous compost are a good medium. Do not use John Innes for this particular plant like I did, as it retains too much water.

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[chrissie B]

got spmething similar to this , its a ground covering bush with the blue flowers with a lighter almost white stripe on the flower, its very pretty .
chrissie b