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California Gardening

My California Lilac is dying

8 years ago

I have approx. 90 California Lilac planted on slopes around my property. They are beautiful, grow fast and produce an incredibly gorgeous light blue colored cone shaped flower. Recently, I noticed a few of them turning yellow and dying. They are on a drip system 3 times per week, 25 minutes each time. I fertilized in the spring with an organic fertilizer that I worked in around the root of the plant and then watered afterwards. I have read that this plant does not like "wet feet". After the drip cycle is complete, I have checked the soil around the root of the plant and it is moist not soaked. Could I be under watering? All the other lilac are doing well. Could it be a disease or insect? Does this kind of thing happen just sporadically?

? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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User

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Deller, have these plants been in the ground for more than a year? If so, there is no way they should be being irrigated, much less on drip -- fastest way to kill a Ceanothus, ever. Read the late, great Bert Wilson's blurb on Ceanothus here. From my experience (I'm a restoration ecologist), his opinion is absolutely right on. Ceanothus grow where there are generally no summer rains at all, so that is what they are adapted to.

I had to replace a bunch of Ceanothus on my own hillside because the previous owners irrigated them, instigating, among other things, oak root fungus, to which Ceanothus is highly susceptible, and other root maladies. My oldest replacements have now been there for 15 years, hale and hearty, with no irrigation whatsoever, here in hot and dry Livermore, and I expect them to be there for many years more. At most, sparing irrigation over the first summer to help them establish; after that, nada.

In addition, fertilizer and soil amendments are unnecessary for native species, helping the weeds more than it helps them, and Ceanothus in particular really dislikes both fertilizer and root disturbance, so if you were too energetic in "working (the fertilizer) in around the root", that could have caused problems, too. Benign neglect is usually the best policy: plant them in the fall, help them with a LITTLE water to get through the first summer after that, then leave them alone.

Since your Ceanothus have been on irrigation (for how long?), not advisable to cut them off "cold turkey"; the strategy would be to gradually decrease the frequency of irrigation over the course of this summer. Even if this is their first summer in the ground, 3x a week is too much -- better to irrigate more deeply and do it less frequently, maybe once a week or two weeks or so (gauge frequency by appearance of plants), and let the root balls dry out some between irrigations.

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Comments (10)

gobluedjm 9/18 CA
8 years ago
Drip is bad for natives. Most ceanothus don't need water once established and they also don't need fertilizer. Natives don't get fertilized in the wild.

http://www.laspilitas.com/groups/ceanothus/california_ceanothus.html
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User
8 years ago
I see from your cross-post on another forum that you are in Ramona, which has about the same average annual rainfall in Livermore and is a tad cooler in summer and, also, that this is the first summer for these plants. So, okay, irrigate them a little, but less often (sounds like, where you are, once every two weeks would probably be fine -- maybe even once every three weeks).
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aquilachrysaetos
8 years ago
I would also water them in the evening after the heat of the day is off them until they are established.
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Nil13 usda:10a sunset:21 LA,CA (Mount Wash.)
8 years ago
So a bunch of new plants are doing fine, but a couple aren't and they all have the same culture. I would check for gophers.
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User
8 years ago
Can't discount gophers, of course, but also can't ignore that constant summer irrigation (3x a week and constant moisture!) is fundamentally wrong for Ceanothus if one wants them to survive for more than a brief time. What I would suspect, and fear, is that these initial few to die are just the early casualties, the ones that happened to be more quickly susceptible for whatever reason, and that more will follow (it's only early July...). Been there, seen that, more than a few times.
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calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
8 years ago
The bare soil around your plants makes me wonder if you have been using any herbicides. I get wild black berry in mine and have found the Ceanothus to be very sensitive to any herbicides. Al
BarbJP 15-16/9B CA Bay Area
8 years ago
Catspa and Gobluedjm are right. It's the summer watering. Ceonothus do not need nor want summer water past the first year of establishment. The other suggestions are not nearly as likely as the one fact of them getting summer water. Do as Catspa suggests and slowly wean them off the irrigation and then do not water them at all anymore. Period.
chezron
8 years ago
Summer water kills Ceanothus! I have killed several that way. Fertilizer just puts them on the the fast track to death. Want to kill Ceanothus? Fertilize them and give them summer water.
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lgteacher
8 years ago
Back off the irrigation and put some mulch on the ground, but not close to the main stem of the plant.
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