Hey, JoJo... Do the directions on the Soap mention rinsing the leaves after application/before sun exposure? I've seen bad things happen to plants that were soap/oil treated and then put back into the sun. Sadly, I even toasted a pepper plant in just such a fashion :-( Josh

Plants don't age in the same way we think of people aging. Age in people is a described on a chronological basis, where plants age ontogenetically. This might be framed as, the parts that have taken the most cell divisions to produce are the plant's oldest parts; so strangely, the most recent part of the plant (say, a new branch high on the plant) to grow is the oldest part of the plant. The youngest part of the plant will be found in the root to shoot transition zone. This juvenile part of the plant is also nearly always the most vigorous part of the plant. Plants pass through life stages until they end up at the sexually mature stage. At that point they are capable of blooming/fruiting. Whether they DO or not is complicated and not entirely understood. Blooming and other environmental reactions of most healthy plants are primarily influenced by day length (technically it's night length), but more than a few plants are triggered by other factors, like moisture availability, temperature, predation. Some plants even seem to have an internal 'alarm clock' that acts as a trigger to bloom. There are species of bamboo that bloom as infrequently as every 130 years and when the bloom occurs, all plants of a given genetic origin bloom simultaneously, en masse (all at once), and this occurs regardless of environmental influences. Now, that a plant is capable of blooms/fruit doesn't mean it will produce same, no matter how much we hope. The factors that limit a plant's ability to bloom are as complicated as those that trigger blooming. The plant's internal chemical messengers that limit blooming is first influenced by the plants ontogenetic age, but then by health, stress, stored energy reserves, a significant number of environmental factors, and sometimes seemingly no more than a built-in piqued obstinacy that can be more irritating than Justin Bieber or the Kardashians, if that's even possible. How do I get it to bloom? Keep it healthy and let it do its thing. You can search online - there might be some simple ways to coax it to bloom exactly whenever it feels like it. How old does it have to be? The only age important to plants is what growth phase they're in. They have to be old enough chronologically to have reached sexual maturity. This is also complicated because the (ontogenetic) age of the parent plant from which the propagule (that is now your plant) was taken has to be a part of the equation. Example - a hawthorn tree from seed needs to survive around 20-25 growth cycles to bloom; whereas, a cutting from a blooming hawthorn tree can be counted on blooming within a few years if its state of vitality has been generally good. Al

3 leaves on one plant.. or the last three plants... please.. put away the chemicals UNLESS you ID a problem which chemicals can help ... 'winging it' is not proper ... a dying leaf my have a fungus.. but i doubt that the fungus was the cause of the dying leave.. meaning the chemical use was not necessary ... please put away the plant food ... it is just not necessary on trees and shrubs .... my best spectulation is the you hyper-fertilized them into growing so much green that the root structure can not support all that green ... down here in the adrian area ... we have been in severe drought for 6 weeks.... one tenth inch of rain ... if you have not been watering properly... you would have brown leaves... if you didnt burn the roots with fert'ing on a drought-stressed plant.. and planting them so close together also may have increased the water stress ... add to drought.. the 2 weeks near 100 degrees.. the three hail storms.. and the two late frosts.. and who will really knows why those plants are stressed ... insure proper watering by digging a small hole and see if you are actually getting water to the root zone... but by the end of the second year.. privet should be free-range.. and need no further TLC from you .... we kill more stuff with too much love, rather than benign neglect ... you can not rely on a clock or wing it.. you have to determine if water is getting through the soil to the root zone ... good luck ken

They are not turning brown - those are new leaves that are emerging and they will often have a bit of a reddish or brown tint. Once they mature in the sunlight they will turn green.