What is killing my Forest Pansy?

Victoria44

Please, anyone, can you give me an idea as to what is happening to this (one of two in a long border) Forest Pansy? The leaves on several branches are starting to crisp up and die. The other one is showing no sign of problems. Is this V. Wilt, do you think? Please help with suggestions of how to help🙏  Many thanks

Victoria44

Here’s my second attempt at attaching a photo!

BobTheGardener

Cercis are 'self pruning' when short of water and whole branches are shed.  I think it has suffered from drought as some point and that is what is happening here.  Scroll down a bit on this page:

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/dying-branches-redbud-trees-98620.html

Helix

Maybe it’s drought, but I fear verticillium wilt from the pattern of areas affected. They are very susceptible.  Cut off one of the affected branches and see if it has the brown ring typical of v.wilt. 

All you can do is make sure they are very well fed and watered.  There is no effective treatment for v.wilt.

Victoria44

Thank you both for your advice - I fear this means it’s wilt 😞. Should I just see this loss as an opportunity to plant something else or should I persevere and see if I can keep it alive, do you think?

BobTheGardener

That is VW for sure.  All you can do is try cutting it further and further back until you see white wood with no black staining.  If it has it all the way down to the roots I would dig it out and replace with something resistant.  The RHS has a pdf listing verticillium wilt resistant species, here:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/pdfs/verticillium-host-list.pdf

Loxley

I was recently reading that Cercis canadensis can be coppiced (the indians used to do this to make wands for basket weaving, a bit like we did with hazel). That might be your best bet to make sure you remove as much infected material as possible.