Please forgive my recent absence. Due to recent personal issues I've been been unable to participate and am now slowly trying to catch up on things. I still reject all ideas about chemicals, herbicides, salt water intrusion, etc. The distribution pattern does not correlate. To recap slightly, what I'm seeing (though I've not been out much lately) is vast normal areas of seemingly healthy trees in which one comes across single dead trees widely spaced--mostly oaks, but other species, too--and most alarmingly, groups (4-7) of dead trees. As anyone who lives around here knows, Oaks are the vast majority of existing trees in central Florida so it's no surprise that even if multiple species are uniformly affected, it would be Oaks that bear the brunt of the effect and suffer in greater numbers. (As soon as I get a chance I will try to make and post a video and will put a notice about it here.) Sometimes, the group will have other nearby individual dead trees very close around it... such as 4 adjacent dead trees, and within 500' of them, 4 or 5 more. Recently, of a group of a dozen or so palms, I noticed 3 adjacent ones, fresh dead. Another symptom that may or may not be related... I'm seeing many trees that from a distance look healthy, but have tip sections (approx. 3'-6') of branches that are flat dead. Some of these trees may have 3 such dead branches (as viewed from one side). Some may have a dozen. I'm in eastern Hillsborough County. Yesterday, I went to Brandon (a more urban/suburban area) and over there I did not see as many dead trees and dead branch tips. But there were some. Also, recently, I happened upon a land owner who was affected by dead trees so inquired as to what he knew. He was adamant that the death was caused by beetles. He claimed to obtain this information from someone who would know about such things, but our conversation was hectic as he was in the middle of work activity requiring his focus. And I had little time then, too, so was not able to get more information. However, I can believe that such a theory is far more likely than any chemical-based theory. I could imagine how beetles could move into an area and quickly distribute themselves on an adjacent group of trees. And on some other nearby trees. And then fly off to trees one-quarter mile away and do it all again. I can imagine, too, that they could do this in concert with some weather/climate phenomenon and seemingly "burst" upon the scene as a sudden catastrophe... such as the periodic "herds of locusts." They could do damage directly or be the carrier of disease a la the well known Dutch Elm Disease. However, I'm not in a position to research this information first-hand and there seems to be a lack of it coming through official channels. When I fist reported it here it was extremely new (to this area) so stood a good chance of not yet being noticed or having anyone ascertain its degree of impact. The overall distribution of this condition... what may or may not exist beyond my area, is unknown to me. Maybe we are the "epicenter." Or maybe this is just old stuff finally working its way through this area from other parts of Florida. I'm surprised that it is does not yet seem to be a major local news story or that definitive information is not coming forth via official channels. Then again, I've been out of commission for more than two weeks.

Even with pics, it's impossible to rule out other things but this looks like a plant that is struggling with the difference in soil between its' peaty root ball and the surrounding soil. This just happens sometimes, despite anyone's best efforts to plant and then coddle them well. Combined with a little frost bite, it's had a struggle. Looks like it's on the frontier, the edge of the bed, and may have been more affected by the frost because of that added exposure. Try not to water it unless it's truly thirsty. That will give it cause to make roots beyond the peat ball. Having long-term mulch there is good. You might have to dig a little deeper, push it back a little bit to give tiny new plants like this room to breathe, but the soil under there should be very nice, well-drained, more fertile, not drying as quickly, moderating temp extremes in summer and winter, a great thing. Replace as needed, as it decomposes, to keep a 2-4" layer of fresh on top. I wouldn't see any need to fertilize these plants. Coleus have always grown well for me without it, especially in the ground. At this point, if you remove the big, mostly damaged older leaves, you'll end up with much nicer looking* plants with many more branches and total mass of foliage. From this angle, the ones I'd remove have orange stars on them, and any others that are more brown than green. The dead parts are just blocking the light. This will allow light to reach more parts of the plant, improve air circulation, and encourage many new tips (which will soon be branches) to grow away from the main stem. I prefer this over pinching the tips on new plants this short, as there is no reduction in height, and the difference at the end of the year is astonishing if done vs. not done at all, and between tip-pinched vs. removing the original leaves from the main stem but not the tip. Glad you find it helpful, I love babbling about one of my fav plants! *Sometimes one might want a tall, thin plant, which is fine. Just trim nothing at all.

Could be cyclamen mites - I've had the same problem on a few different plants incl. an S. Divinorum, pretty bad, actually, and very similar to the pics posted. Well, curled leaves to me is the first sign of someone nesting underneath, so I looked. And saw nothing. Then looked again. And a tincy-wincy whitish thing appeared to move across. Well, out came the microscope, and yep, it's a cyclamen mite, positive ID on a few female species from different plants. Now, saying they're small means understating things by a few orders of magnitude: you need a 100x microscope to count legs, so you get the idea. At this magnification a pin tip looks like a sphere, and you still couldn't read what's tattooed on the mite's butt. Interestingly enough, they manifest themselves sort of differently on mango plants that have heavy, waxy leaves, but the idea is still the same - browning (like in case of a bad burn) and crookedness of the young leaves. At any rate, I've searched the web and those mites seem to be fairly common and - bad news - fairly hard to get rid of, the last resort measure being soaking them in 100-110F water for half an hour, something I am trying literally as we speak (just put plants in pots into a bathtub full of hot water). I'll see how it goes, but I've seen those mites dying in a drop of water under the microscope in about a minute, so it might work. I'm hoping I won't kill the plants. Makes me think - I've read on some funny sites that those symptoms are very common to S. Divinorum, but "it's a bit of a mystery" - nobody's certain, most authors contradict one another and the best advice I've seen was to try changing every variable one by one to see what works. Now, given that they are all derived from a small progenitor stock and the number of places you can get cuttings from is limited - could it be that they are all infested with mites? It's hardly surprising that mites haven't been notices in the past: as I said, it takes some looking. Thinking about the spread of infestation across my plants and its apparent chronology, I can only suggest that mites were brought on the cutting I planted, there are no other possible sources like other plants or soil. If you want to check your plants, get a really good magnifying glass and check the undersides of the leaves for tiny, 0.1mm or less, bugs. Some are moving fast. And BTW, it appears to be highly contagious, so as most sites suggest, step one is isolating the infested plants.

Marion: I can't imagine why the nursery advised you to water your maple every day. Roots need air as well as water, and the roots of a Japanese maple will start to die if they are sitting in soggy compost. Also, overpotting (moving a plant into a pot that's more than a size or two larger than the one it was in) can result in the roots being in contact with a mass of stagnant compost, which in turn can result in plant death (I have killed off a couple of acers myself, over a period of two years or so, by overpotting). I would hold off on the watering. In cases where the plant is of manageable size, it would be a good idea to tip it out of its pot to examine the roots (if they are brown and mushy, or breaking off, then they are dead), and maybe repot into a smaller container. However, by your comment about its cost, I'm assuming it's pretty big and this course of action isn't an option! Sandie: Japanese maples have quite delicate leaves that can get burned in hot sun (some varieties will suffer badly, others much less so). Could you perhaps provide some temporary shade to keep the worst of the sun off it? Also, if the area where it is planted is dry, it may benefit from supplementary watering. Hope this helps.