Ceanthus not so evergreen problem

Hi All

My parents planted 2 ceanthus either side of an garden archway a couple of years ago, i'm not sure what variation of ceanthus they are but where sold as being climbers. They are climbing the frame, albeit pretty slowly, but for the first year the leaves remained a fresh deep green colour (as expected), but over the last 12 months they have all become a rather sandy-yellow colour. I have given them some teaspoons of Iron powder to see if that was their problem but that made no difference, strangely though the leaves aren't dead they just look ill ??

Any advise on how to revive the poor things would be appreciated, and if anybody know which variation of ceanthus is a climber that would also be most welcome

Thanks
John

 

Jonny, there are no climbing Ceanothus. They are shrubs, common name Californian Lilac. What have they been fed with, apart from this " iron powder "? Any chance of some pics?

 

They can be trained up a wall or fence though, so any of them could be called a climber (in the loosest sense of the word!)

 

No they can`t Aaron. They are shrubs. They are not even wall shrubs. The only one that may be lax enough to train up a wall or trellis would be repens. and that only grows about a metre.:thumb:

 

Humph!

Goes off to sulk...:wink:

 

I should hope so, weren`t you taught to listen to your elders when you were at college?
:lollol::lollol::lollol::gnthb:

 

Thanks everybody, seems some poor advise about a climbing variety was given when they were bought, grrrrr

Maybe its time to take them out and replace them with something more appropriate, like a climbing rose or a couple of clematis.

John

 

I fell for that one many years ago. I tried to train it on a south facing wall. In my life I have never met a shrub who so did not want to climb:hehe:

 

Yup, the confusion is over the fact that it is a good wall shrub benefitting from the additional warmth and drainage. C. Cascade can get to 20ft evidently, presumably in an ideal site