Since you don't plan on doing anything to stop the progress of disease in your plants, then I think that you should rip 'em out and replace with something that will thrive in that specific location. I really don't think that humid conditions are a problem for this plant, per se. But if you live in area that sees a lot of cloud cover OR if they are not located in the full sun, leaf spot diseases are likely. Overhead irrigation can be a factor, too. I think of Rapheolepis as being practically problem free....as long as it's planted in the right place, lol. Then all bets are off.

They will find the plants they like. You either have to spray or enclose the plant with wire or mesh. I have seen gardens where the deer selected all the delectible items and left behind things that were of no interest.

a lot of questions but few answers on this thread The thread is 6 years old. Most veteran responders do not pay much attention to threads that stale. New questions should generate the start of a new thread. Some of the leaves are turning red. Why? Some varieties do produce very burnished or ruddy new growth and some will redden in response to cold weather. Otherwise, red foliage generally indicates the plants have issues......drainage, leaf spot or other fungal infection or the leaves are just dead. I know the berries are non toxic to humans but how about pets? Plants that are non-toxic to humans are generally (but not always) non-toxic to dogs and cats as well. If your vet cannot find documentation of toxicity, I doubt there's much concern. The berries are actually edible when cooked and can be used to make jam. Probably much too tart or bitter to eat fresh but dog taste buds are strange :-)

Hi Lindsey, Because your climate there is so different from ours here, I don't know if your plants encounter the same diseases and pests we see here in Oklahoma, or if y'all have different ones. So, I googled and found some Indian Hawthorn info from UC-Davis and have linked it below. Maybe something in it will help. It does seem to have a lot of useful info. I do want to share with you a couple of thoughts that crossed my mind as I was reading your post. First of all, I would say that when a plant has browning or yellowing of the foliage AND the plant was planted within the last year, it very often (probably 75% of the time) is suffering from transplant shock. It is not unusual for transplant shock to show up many weeks or months (up to a year) after a plant was planted. With transplant shock, though, you'll see foliage discoloration but it doesn't usually show up as a circle in the middle of the leaf. So, it might be transplant shock, but I don't necessarily think it is. Secondly, alarm bells started going off in my head when I glanced at your user name and saw that you are in the southern California desert. I don't think of Indian Hawthorne as a desert-type plant. To me, Indian Hawthorne is the kind of plant that thrives in a "typical" southern USA or southeastern USA location--an area with well-drained soil that has high organic content in the soil, lots of rainfall, moderate to high humidity and a soil (and water) pH that is somewhat acidic, like in the 6.0 to 6.8 range or thereabouts. I've never lived or gardened in the desert, but I would assume your soil there is alkaline to very alkaline, has low-organic content in the soil, and has a pH in both the water and soil that is too high for an Indian Hawthorne to do well. However, IF you added tons and tons of organic material to your soil, you might be able to overcome your soil's shortcomings and get an Indian Hawthorne to do well. Third, because desert soil is sandy, I wonder if nematodes are a problem there? In our county in Oklahoma, we have two predominant soil types--very, very thick, heavy, slow-draining red clay and extremely well-drained sandy soil that does not hold moisture very well. In those sandy areas, nematodes are a big problem. Nematodes COULD cause problems for your plant because they damage the roots and interfere with the uptake of moisture and nutrition. Fourth, have the plants grown well since they were planted, or did they start going downhill when they were planted and then never rebounded? Here, if leaves from Indian Hawthorn fall because of drought stress or disease, you normally have new leaves come out pretty quickly to replace them. If that's not happening, something pretty serious is probably going on. Fifth, I assume desert soil is low-fertility. Thus, you would need to fertilize regularly with a good balanced fertilizer in order for the plant to grow and remain healthy. Have you fertilized? Sixth, in the cooler, wetter, more humid south, a lot of gardeners have problems with anthracnose on their Indian Hawthorn shrubs. Your brown circular spots sound sort of like anthracnose, but without seeing those spots, it is hard to say. Anthracnose spots would be brown with alternating light and dark brown concentric rings--sort of like a target. Finally, you didn't say if there is any sort of a pattern. For example, are the brown leaves up higher on the shrub? Down lower? All over? Are the affected leaves newer growth or older growth? It is happening all over the plant at one time, or does it start on one limb and then advance limb by limb? We can discuss this more if the questions made you think of anything else you observed that might help us to figure it out. A couple of more suggestions. Although we're a friendly bunch here at the Oklahoma Forum and are ALWAYS happy to hear from gardeners who don't live in Oklahoma, you might get more helpful info from someone who lives there in California and gardens in a climate and soil more similar to yours. So, you might want to ask this question at the California Forum here at Garden Web. Also, you might want to take photos (and maybe even a small limb with both sick leaves and healthy leaves on it)to a full-line nursery (NOT a big box store that just happens to have a "garden center" and sells plants) and see if someone knowledgeable there can help you. OR, you could contact your county agricultural/horticultural extension agent. OR, if you can find a listing for your county's Master Gardener program, you might try to get in touch with a master gardener and see if they can help you. (In many states, master gardeners staff extension helplines.) I don't know if anything I said was particularly helpful, but I tried. I just feel hampered by the knowledge that your conditions are so different from ours. Good luck, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: UC-Davis Indian Hawthorn page