Wilting Buddleia.

This morning my wife said to me, "The Buddleia needs watering as it is wilting".
My thoughts were that the soil isn't dry, we have been having a fair bit of rain this month and it shouldn't need any extra water. However, when I saw it I could see it was wilting so I poured two watering cans full around the base.
This evening it was looking no better so I took these photos.





This Buddleia (Berries and Cream) was planted two years ago and last year it did well, flowering all summer and well into the autumn.
Can anyone tell me what is happening to it and how can I nurse it back to health?

 

Overwatered.

Seriously, it seems a bit odd as I always think of them as that weed that used to actually grow out of the walls of the workshop I started work at and grow in ground that even had diesel spilt on it.
Looks like a root problem, but without digging it up its not easy to say as far as I know.

 

Normally expect them to be as tough as old boots. I don't know this particularvariety though.
Over the years I have had a couple of species just curl up their toes and die, in one case it wilted and on examination I found all the bark on the main trunk came away in my hand. I put this down to a fungal root problem. Another couple were down to last years drought followed by the cold snap in December, these were two of the more recently introduced species and probably more tender.

 

July has been a wet month here but not that wet. We have not had any flooding or even surface water. Some days we would get a couple of hour's rain then it would dry up for a day. My soil is clay but that part of the garden was a vegetable patch at one time and my late father-in-law worked in plenty of manure over the 40 years he worked the land. It has been grassed over for at least 25 years. It just seems to have wilted since it came into bloom.

 

Whenever I've removed an unwanted buddleia, I've observed that they don't build very big roots. They always seem to thrive wherever they can get really anchored in, like in derelict buildings or cracks concrete.

I'm wondering, if the soil is good quality and workable, I'm wondering if wind rock might be disturbing the roots.

 

It does get windy, but it is fairly sheltered being in a corner at the back of the garage and with the fence you can see in the background to the north.

 

From my experience, I would guess the Buddleja’s roots have become damaged. The fine roots retreat in the winter and, if the plant is stressed, they fail to regrow properly the following spring. It’s about now the symptoms first appear, as they seem able to grow for quite a while on their reserves; either the plant looks a bit stunted in mild cases or else severe wilting if the roots are terminal.

The plant in the photos has probably had its chips, but you may be able to save it, albeit only temporarily, by cutting back and giving the remaining roots less work to do.

The causes are windrock which damages the roots, saturated soil in the winter, heavy conditions with poor drainage allowing waterborne moulds to attack, compacted soil etc.. No reliable cure, and when I see symptoms like this start I take cuttings immediately to preserve the cultivar. Prevention is possible by preparing the soil properly before planting, ensuring drainage, feeding and mulching, and in some cases regular de-compaction using a garden fork.

Buddlejas, even B. davidii, are not bomb-proof. Once established they may live thirty, forty years or more, but their life is short in less than ideal conditions. The cultivated forms need care like any garden plant unless you are willing to replace them every few years.

 

@The Buddleja Garden This morning I stuck the hose at its base for a full half hour and when I turned it off the water on the surface immediately soaked away. We will leave it a couple of days to see if there is any improvement then take some softwood cuttings before lopping it hardback.
It may be a lack of water as the Snow In Summer nearby is brown and dried out.

 

This morning I checked on my Buddleia and there was no improvement with yesterday's watering but what I did notice was that only one stem was wilting. The rest of the shrub looked fine. It was one long thin stem that came from just above ground level. Near the bottom, it showed the appearance of the start of bark but the rest was just soft green wood. It didn't appear damaged in any way. I lopped the stem off from its joint with the main branch of the shrub and I will see what happens.

 

I've had a lot of rain here over the last month and although it's coming into bloom one of my two Buddlejas isn't looking as good as usual. They like dry soil and I have sandy loam which is free draining which has helped. Clay holds water and sorry Jocko, I think watering it was the wrong thing to do.

My plant is in it's third year and isn't bothered by the wind in it's 'open to the elements' aspect.

 

Since removing that one stem the rest of the plant is looking great with the blooms looking and smelling tremendous. Yesterday we spotted that a few of the other shrubs in that part of the garden seemed to be flagging but a good hosing yesterday afternoon and they are all looking fine today. Despite clay soil in other parts of the garden I am beginning to think the shrubbery, which for years was a vegetable garden, must have been well worked and broken up. I dug a post hole about 18 inches deep, filled it with water and it drained away in a couple of minutes.

 

Today my other half said, "Have you seen the Buddleia today? It looks like an elephant has sat on it.". It was flat on the ground. It has died completely. The thick stems appear to have rotted entirely. Tomorrow we will dig it out, I will put it through the chipper and it can go out with the bins. Such a shame.

 

Can you work out how it happened? I usually try to do a bit of a post mortem investigation when one of my plants dies unexpectedly.

For it to have rotted, I think we can rule out lack of water.

Some sort of bug had it? Do vine weevils attack buddleia?

 

I think the roots have possibly been damaged by wind rock. The soil it was in is friable and not damp. I removed it today but I have still to dig out the rest of the roots. I do not know whether to dump the soil it was in or if I can plant something else in the same soil. I was thinking of Delphiniums and Bearded Irises, which I have in tubs looking for a permanent home.

 

I'd just move on, I doubt it was anything wrong with the soil unless you have done anything in that area that could have caused a problem, if other stuff is still ok its probably what you say, wind rock.