If you have been having drought, it will cause this. Drought can cause entire branches or entire plants to die. We have had several years of drought here and we observe that if rhododendrons and azaleas are not watered during a drought some plants will die, but others will just have one section of the plant die. It seems to be the plants way to conserve what little moisture it has. Prolonged drought weakens plants and often results in the appearance of fungal cankers on the branches of older azaleas. Look for branches that wilt in hot, dry weather in late summer and be sure to water azaleas if drought drags on more than a few weeks. Prune out the affected branches to stop the spread of fungal canker diseases. Another possibility is borers. If a Rhododendron Stem Borer, Oberea myops, or Rhododendron Borer, Synanthedon rhododendri, is in a branch, the entire portions of a plant beyond (away from the roots) will wilt and die. Borers only affect the portion of the plant away from the roots from the borer. If the borer is in the main trunk, then the entire plant will wilt and die. The plant can be save by cutting off the area with the borer and letting the plant regenerate from the roots. There are no conventional insecticides that will kill stem borer larvae once they are inside the branches. The best control option for homeowners with only a few plants is to prune out and destroy wilting branches in early spring or late summer.

Oh, what a wonderful treat to come home from vacation and read all about your September gardens and see all your gorgeous pics! It is really difficult to come back from a place as beautiful as Kauai and get into the usual grind of the every day routine stuff. But your words and pics are helping tremendously! And thanks so much for the nice compliments on my gardens. It's so nice to share them with others who appreciate all that goes into creating them. : ) The paint I used on the chair was Krylon Fusion plastic paint and the color is hyacinth blue. So far it does seem to be holding up well. I really love the color. It's the same color I used on the pond in the potager. It says it can be used on metal so I did just that. It hasn't peeled at all, and it is in strong direct sun all day. I've used a few other colors, too. This paint also has a comfortable spray nozzle, so your finger won't tire as quickly as it can from the old style nozzle. HTH! CMK, that pic of MS is from earlier this year. I have now shovel pruned her. I loved the color but the blooms were too clustered even for this floribunda fanatic. There were so many that most of them never opened fully. It was a good rose, other wise. I hope you have better luck. Libby, glad you liked the plumbago pic! I hope it comes back for me. It grows like a weed in most of So.Cal but I am colder up here so I'll just have to wait and see. I hope yours does well for you, too! Not that you need any more beauty in your gardens. I'm always so happy to see pics of what you have created over the years. : ) Diana

All is well here, except I may need to change my user name to sweatinginplace :). We lost our power Saturday at midnight and Uverse (wifi and tv) cut out Monday afternoon, so we've been completely out of touch. I live in an older neighborhood full of lush tree canopy and aging power poles and lines. We always lose electricity quickly and get it back slooooooowly. As of this morning we'd seen no sign of a tree trimming crew much less power trucks to deal with a lot of downed trees and lines. FPL, our energy provider, claims power will be back by midnight Sunday but based on past storm experience I doubt it--I'd bet midweek next week earliest. Fortunately we had no damage; we have huge oak trees surrounding the house and I was so afraid one would fall, or a large limb would crash down. Despite the misery of living without electricity my wonderful, wonderful husband has kept me as comfortable as possible. We have a generator and he really likes working with electricity so over the years he's set it up to run the power through circuits into the house, meaning normal operation of lights, tv (except after UVerse disconnected so no signal), ceiling fans and small appliances. This time we realized the generator would also power the wall unit AC we have in our Florida room so I dragged a mattress out there and have been comfortable to sleep. Forget roses and candy, THAT is a keeper of a spouse! And we feel incredibly blessed that the vacation/retirement house we bought 5 months ago in Key Largo came through the storm unscathed-HUGE relief. We have direct deep water access meaning the house is on a short canal on the Atlantic side of the key; climb in the boat and 45 seconds later you're on the open ocean. So we were frantically worried up in Miami about the storm surge and of course the wind. The water came within inches of the top of our stairs from the dock to the back yard but didn't overflow into the pool or lower level. Minor wind damage to screens but overall the house is in perfect condition. Most amazingly of all--the electricity came back yesterday, the UVerse is humming and everything is perfectly normal inside! We decided to bug out of Miami so packed up the cats and the refrigerators, turned off the generator and now I"m sitting comfortably in air conditioning with laundry going downstairs and all the comforts of home. We've got many friends down here and the damage and destruction is heart breaking. Even in the upper Keys which didn't get the full force storm, lots of people have flood damage and the debris fields are stunning to see. However it is awe inspiring to watch the outpouring of help. From FEMA trucks to electric restoration convoys to giant Salvation Army semis with supplies to C-130 planes and helicopters flying over in formation....a steady stream of resources. It's a reminder that despite politics or divisions within our country, when something terrible happens Americans pull together to help.

I have a small fuyu persimmon that has a lot of fruit this year. Like maybe 100 fruits even tho I thinned it this spring. They are still green so I didn't want to pick them. I'm afraid the tree might be damaged in Florence tho since persimmon don't fall off easily. I have to cut them off when I harvest, so they probably won't fall from wind. A good persimmon harvest is not worth risking my tree! Does anyone have experience with this? What are you all doing? Should I pick half of them off tonight, or let it ride out the storm?