Is this beyond help?

Hello, I have just bought a house and found this in the garden. It doesn't look very healthy and was wondering if someone can please tell me if it is beyond help? I've just cut off a couple more dead branches. Many thanks.

 

Hi Laura and


Any chance of a more pics, a close up of both the flowers and leaves would be good.

 

Kind of depends on what it is, a close up of the new emerging leaves might help ID.

 

Many thanks! I'm away for a few days now, but I will post some other photos when I'm back.

 

The plant is a berberis darwinii.

 

Oh well, we dont need more pictures now then.

 

@Laura123 I suspect it might be better to take it out altogether at this point. You can easily find a you B darwinii or you might prefer something else.
Normal advice would be to feed and mulch after removing a third of the branches low down and allow to shoot from the bottom and then remove half the remaining branches a year later and then the final old ones; in this case this might not be practical.

 

Oh great.....sorry I thought perhaps you didn't know what it was either.

 

Thank you for the advice, thats much appreciated. Thanks also for explaining how to deal with it if I was keeping it - I have other plants that need similar attention that aren't as far gone!

 

Personally, unless the space is needed for something else, I would keep it. Feed it and see what it does. But there again, I am a sucker for lost causes.

 

I don't need the space, maybe I'll give it a chance yet!