Issues in some plants - help needed

Hello! My name is Javi and I’m a double expat, as I’m coming from GW but I’m also a Spanish in the UK

I have a problem with two plants in my garden, which probably is unrelated as they are far from each other, but the symptoms are similar.

I have a potted magnolia that suddenly started to have all its leaves brown until it lost all of them. Also, the new shoots were not tender, they were hard and brown, and they didn’t open at all

on the other end of the garden I have a honeysuckle, and started to experience a similar problem. Brown leaves and then it lost the leaves. I pruned it properly trying to bring it back to live, and I feel the new developing branches are not as tender as they were before, they look sturdy and dry

any idea what might be the problem? Looks like it might be a disease, and I fear it might expand even further to other plants in the garden

thanks

 

Morning Javi and welcome.

It would help if you showed your location as this may make a difference in who can assist you as I am afraid I cannot.

 

Magnolias aren't easy in pots, and honeysuckles don't like drying out either, but as @Victoria has said, your location and some info about your climate will always help with accurate advice. Some photos always helps as well
Older stems on honeysuckles will harden up, and even newer shoots can be quite woody as the plant matures. The magnolia might simply have been exposed to a lot of wind, and/or sun which has affected foliage. It also depends when this happened - if it was last summer, it may have dried out, causing the foliage to dessicate and drop earlier than normal. Although that can also happen in the ground, potted shrubs and trees are more prone, and will do that to try and save the main plant.

 

Thanks for the welcome.

im based in Milton Keynes. The magnolia started to have this symptoms last winter (it was quite cold) so I was thinking it might be dead, but the fact that there are new shoots makes me believe it is still alive

as per the honleysuckle it started in the summer. I added mulch around the area as recommended in GW but at this point I was expecting it would be sprouting again

I have some pictures here from when both plants started to develop the issues, I don’t think the current ones add a lot of value as it’s just a dry plant without leaves but can post it if is of any help

 

That magnolia is very very unhappy. If it's still alive [may not be] it needs to be planted in the ground, or at least in a bigger, better container. It looks like a serious case of black spot, but there could be other things too. The new shoots are a good sign but it won't thrive unless the conditions are really improved.
The honeysuckle could be in very dry conditions there. Mulching won't help a lot if the ground below is really dry. The proximity of the grass will be impacting on it for moisture too. You could cut it back, which will help to produce new growth, but it would also help if you cleared a good area around the base so that you can improve the soil there. It's hard to see it from that distance though

 

I certainly cannot help with the Magnolia but I do have a Honeysuckle here and from your photo i think yours desperately needs to be cut back to refresh and renew it. Mine is massacred yearly to keep it in shape.

 

Hi! Another gw expat I recognise your name, you helped a lot there!

I don’t want to put the magnolia in the ground as it will grow a lot, I want it to be 2-3 meters high. I will try to repot it

as per the honeysuckle, yeah I increased the non grass area around it and mulched it. See this recent pic

maybe I’m too impatient… when should I start to see improvement?

thanks

 

I think you need to do a bit of cutting back. It should then show some improvement over late spring/summer
You can always prune the magnolia if it's getting too big. Easier than trying to maintain it in a pot. Your choice though. If you know what type it is, that will also help with advice. Some need more alkaline soil than others, for example.

 

Did you water them when the weather was dry? Did you have them in 2022 when it was very dry quite early in the year? Usually plants resist illness better when they are kept fed and moist. A magnolia in a pot will need a lot more water then one in the ground. If the compost dries out it will be really hard to moisten it again as water will just run straight through.

Honeysuckles like to be pruned, magnolias don't. Magnolias also prefer to be planted in the ground.

 

Yep I had those from long time ago.

hereare two more recent pics. For the honeysuckle, should i prune it more? If do, how much more?

as per the magnolia, you can see here the shoot. It is sturdy as a branch

 

The honeysuckle looks rather dead. I've cut them down before to about a foot tall and they've re-grown, but they looked a lot more alive than yours does. Is there any green in the stems if you scrape them?

 

I will try it. What could have been the disease? It was super healthy in summer but it started to get dry till how it is right now

 

All I can add is its very unlikely that a disease that affects magnolias is likely to spread to a honeysuckle.
I agree the magnolia is not a good plant to try growing in a container, obviously depending on which species it is as some are naturally quite small and never get big even if planted out. It may well have had the pot freeze solid for more than a week if it was out in December 2022 which was very cold.
As for the honeysuckle I'd cut it back hard and try to find some healthy wood, if not it might just come back from the ground but if it doesn't in the next couple of months I would guess its probably dead.

 

I'd have expected that honeysuckle to have some new growth on it by now, so I agree with @pete. It may be a gonner. If it's been too dry through last summer, or long term, it isn't ideal for them. It's almost impossible to overwater them.

The winter of 22/23 was unusual in the swinging from wet/mild to very cold, very quickly. That affected many plants in many areas. Cordylines were dying off everywhere. I've grown Phormiums for decades, mainly in containers or raised beds because our climate here isn't the best for them. I'd never lost any, in any garden, until that winter. The only one that survived was in a raised bed, with the live pieces right next to the edge. It's still recovering now. We would normally have a gradual dropping of temps from September then a gradual raising from about April. That's much easier for plants of all kinds.
That isn't happening now, so it makes it harder for any plant which is not as tough, or has fleshy foliage or similar. In a pot - it's even harder, as pete describes, because of roots freezing.

 

I have some pics now from a stem I have cut. Does it look alive? I am a newbie so I don’t know if it is expected but the hole in the middle of the stem looks bad…

also I have added a last pic for the a branch I have cut from the magnolia, do you think it is dead by the look of it?

thank you!