Nandina Gulf Stream looking sad

puschkinia

Hi everyone

I bought this nandina gulf stream from the GC a couple of months ago. It's planted in alkaline, chalky clay in full sun, which I thought would be ok for it given the RHS page. It's looking increasingly sad, though - dropping leaves, leaves turning brown, white marks on the inside leaves (powdery mildew?)

I had a search through the forums and I'm seeing mixed things about whether this is a sun or shade plant. Does anyone have an idea of how to help it? Does this seem like bacterial leaf scorch maybe? Or it is normal for it to look a bit sad & periodically drop leaves? 

If gulf stream actually isn't great for full sun could anyone recommend a different, compact nandina that is?

TheGreenMan

This may help: https://horticulture.co.uk/nandina-domestica/

Mine is not looking too good either.  I planted mine about two months ago.

Spotty leaves; odd leaf curling; dark red new leaves.....

TheGreenMan

I'm also now guessing that mine was labelled incorrectly.......

Doing a Google search, mine looks more like Blush Pink or Firepower......

AnniD

They can look a little sad when first planted @puschkinia, they are pretty tough though and should usually settle down in around 6 months (in my experience). 
I'm wondering if it's been watered from above as opposed to round the roots?  This is just a guess.
It should be fine in full sun, bear in mind it won't start to change colour (ie turn red) until the temperatures start to fall in Autumn. 

@TheGreenMan , l think you're right, it doesn't look like Gulf Stream when you compare it to Puschkina's plant. I've seen them on display in GCs, labelled as the same variety but looking completely different. 

Nollie

They both look to be young and possibly still tender plants, so probably got by transplant shock or weather - desiccated by wind or frostbitten? Not sure about the white marks, Pushkinia, looks like hard water marks more than mildew. I have them in both full, scorching sun and in shade, in raised beds of more acidic loam and directly planted in my very alkaline clay. Once established, they are hardy, drought-tolerant and easygoing in a wide variety of growing conditions. 

Think you are right there @TheGreenMan, my Firepower has similar leaves, which are very different in texture and growth habit to those of my Gulfstream,  which is much more like the species ND.

edited to say, snap @AnniD, didn’t see your post before I pressed the button 😊 

puschkinia

Thanks for the link @TheGreenMan - really helpful, going to have a thorough read-through. I hope your nandina pulls through! They're such lovely plants

@AnniD - thanks, that's really good to know. Hopefully it's just of being patient then I usually water from below, but it's very likely that there have been times when I've been lazy and just watered the whole bed from above. The water is very hard here so water marks would make a lot of sense.

@Nollie Thanks, great to know that the location will be ok! Ahh yeah could be frost, I didn't think about that. IIRC I planted it a little before the fake spring/summer and the freeze that followed. If it's extremely sensitive to wind it could be that, though it's in a sheltered spot.

Hopefully it'll recover ok - didn't realise how expensive they were for such small plants! Either that or I was just ripped off at Dobbies again