- Author: Jennifer Baumbach
Sometimes you just can't figure out what is going on with a plant. One day it looks great and the next time you look at it-not so much. I had this happen to me recently. Long ago, I planted two Ceanothus 'Dark Star'. If you've never seen this ceanothus, you'd be in awe of it's bloom. It's a deep, rich purple flower. Much darker than the normal light blue ceanothus flowers you normally see.
About a year ago, the older ceanothus of the two started to leak sap and limb by limb it descended into death. I was really bummed about this as the ceanothus compliments the bright yellow, waxy flowers of the California flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum) I planted it by. I eventually pulled out the ceanothus and discarded it, thinking great, I at least have the other 'Dark Star' more like the Death Star.
Just this season, I noted the second ceanthous was looking sickly. I was hoping it was just the drought and that it would show new life in spring after the winter rains. Upon closer inspection, I found that the whole plant was indeed dead, dead, dead. I decided to dig the hole plant up and inspect the roots to see if I could perform a post mortem exam. I found that there were roots circling and girdling the main part of the trunk not allowing the flow of nutrients or water to the plant. In essence, starving the plant by strangling it-mystery solved.
It could be that I didn't loosen up the roots enough when first planting or maybe another factor is the hard clay it was planted in not allowing it to penetrate the soil outside the hole I dug. My guess would be that I didn't see a root that was kinked when it was smaller. I have had experience with plants that actually had their smaller pot still attached, but was so buried and hidden in the roots it was undetectable until you did that post mortem inspection.