Spring 2023 - the Death of Hebe

I don't often write "date-specific" posts, as this blog is intended to be a reservoir of reference articles, that people dip into when they want information.

But this year, 2023, I am finding huge numbers of dead Hebes.

Here's a typical example, left: what is normally an evergreen shrub is all brown and dead looking.

Sometimes you might find a little bit of greenery here and there, but generally speaking, once they are this far gone, it's better to dig it out, throw it away, and buy a new one.

Why is this happening?

It's purely down to the weather: last year we had drought, floods, unseasonal cold, unseasonal hot: this winter was mild, mild, mild, then suddenly we had hard frost: then it got mild again (I considered going back into shorts in March!) then frost again. 

No wonder some plants just can't take it.

If you read the Met Office reports, this winter has actually been a mild one, but they are talking about average temperatures: and it's not the average that counts, it's the swings from mild to frosty, to mild, to frosty again, that cause the problem.

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about Salvia suffering in a similar way, and for very much the same reasons.

So if your Hebe have gone brown and look as though they are dead - well, they probably are, but you are not alone, and it's not your fault.

I'm not entirely sure that even covering them up with horticultural fleece would have helped,  even supposing that we had known beforehand what the weather was going to do.... so it looks as though the garden centres are going to do a roaring trade in Hebes for replanting!

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