Pieris Forrest flame not produced red leaves

Hannahmitchell2424

Hi, I planted this plant 3 years ago now and the first 2 years I got amazing red leaves on it. This year it seems it started to produce them and now they look dead/damaged, even thought it has flowered well. The whole plant also looks a bit droopy! 

I am wondering if it’s the weather (we have been having cold frosty nights until recently as I live in the north of England). Or the only other thing I can think of that I’ve done differently is that I was feeding the plants with all purpose miracle grow in previous years, but this killed some plants last year so I haven’t done it this year. I’m sure I didn’t do that until later on in the year though. I also added soil conditioner last November which I haven’t done since I made the flowerbed 3 years ago.

Any tips would be hugely appreciated. 

Thanks

Hannah

Pianoplayer

Hi - it's frost damage. One of mine has the same!

Hannahmitchell2424

@Pianoplayer thanks, I thought it might be. It’s a shame! Should it recover do you know? Or is there anything that can be done to help?

Pianoplayer

I'm keeping a watch on the weather forecast for further frosts, and will cover mine if it gets below zero again. It's only the new shoots that get damaged, not the rest of the plant.

The double whammy with the frosts is that we've not had any rain for weeks, so everything's dry. I have started watering mine, and feeding it with liquid ericaceous food, and hopefully some new red foliage will appear. Fingers crossed!

FlyDragon

Its the weather, all the ones round here are the same, they started putting out lovely red new growth then the cold snap put paid to it!  They will survive, they're tough. 

AaronBil

Same here, there is usually a second flush with mine if the red leaves are blackened from frost.