Plant Doctor Archive

• A feast for slugs
• A mitey problem
• Abutilon
• Acanthus mollis - Bear’s breeches
• Adding horse and cow manure to composts
• Agave damaged
• Ailing apple trees
• Ailing blue spruce
• Ailing camellias
• Ailing hedge
• Ailing indoor palm
• Ailing indoor plants - 1
• Ailing indoor plants - 2
• Ailing junipers
• Ailing maple
• Ailing michelia
• Ailing peppertree
• Ailing puka
• Ailing weeping cherry
• Algae on gravel
• Alstroemeria not flowering
• Alstroemerias
• Angst with aphids
• Antiquing with moss
• Ants everywhere
• Aphids on Brussels sprouts
• Aphids on chives
• Aphids on swan plant
• Arsenic damaging garden?
• Astelias being eaten
• Australian Two-Spined Spider
• Avocado tree
• Awful oxalis
• Azalea flowers dying
• Azaleas

Top

• Bamboozled
• Bank covered in weeds
• Basil year-round
• Battered banana
• Bay tree blues
• Beetles and bugs
• Berries for Idesia
• Best snail bait
• Birds eating crabapples
• Bitter cucumbers
• Black mould on citrus
• Black mulberry tree
• Black spot on roses
• Black spots on citrus
• Black spots on swan plant
• Blackbirds in garden
• Blackcurrant bushes in a bad way
• Bladder plum disease
• Bleeding Eucalyptus
• Blooms & bugs
• Blueberry bush
• Borer in my mandarin tree
• Borer in wisteria
• Bottle brush
• Brassicas not their best
• Brew for the garden
• Bringing in butterflies
• Bringing out the colour in roses
• Brittle robinia - 1
• Brittle robinia - 2
• Brittle tamarillo tree
• Broadleaf weedkillers
• Bromeliads for cool spots
• Bromeliads in bloom
• Bronze beetle damage
• Brown leaves on Pyracantha
• Brown palm
• Brown spots on my broad beans
• Brown spots on yucca
• Browning rose buds
• Browntop a better lawn?
• Brussels Sprouts
• Bug alert
• Bugs and diseases
• Bugs on Hibiscus
• Bugs on indoor plants
• Bugs on my Cannas
• Bugs on my veggies
• Bugs on orchids
• Bugs on palms
• Bugs on rhodies
• Bulb fly
• Bulb fly on daffodils
• Bulbs affected by weather
• Bush rose ‘Graham Thomas’
• Buttercups and Agapanthus
• Buying beneficial bugs

Top

• Cabbage tree cultivation tips
• Cabbage tree scale
• Cabbage trees yellowing
• Callas and Clivias
• Camellia leaves turning brown
• Camellia troubles
• Camellia won’t flower
• Camellias yellowing
• Can I grow tomatoes in winter?
• Can I use sphagnum in my potting mix?
• Caring for my Magnolia
• Caring for my Vireya
• Caring for passion fruit
• Caring for Wisteria over winter
• Carrot fly
• Carrot rust fly
• Carrots being attacked
• Cats in the garden
• Caterpillars
• Caterpillars eating kowhai
• Caterpillars on kowhai - 1
• Caterpillars on kowhai - 2
• Caterpillars on my plants
• Catnip leaves turning purple
• Chamomile request
• Chemical-free roses
• Cherry and plum trees not flowering
• Cherry woes
• Chewed rose buds and leaves
• Chewed up veggie patch
• Choisya not so choice
• Cicada damage
• Citrus not growing
• Citrus verrucossis
• Citrus won't fruit
• Clematis from seed
• Clematis killer
• Clerodendrum
• Climbing roses for the coast
• Club root
• Club root in brassicas
• Coal in the soil
• Coastal colour
• Codling moth
• Codling moth on fruit trees
• Combating oxalis
• Comfrey and Yarrow
• Compost or sludge?
• Condys crystals and grubs in raspberries
• Conifer dying
• Controlling boysenberries
• Controlling passion vine hopper
• Controlling powdery mildew
• Controlling puff balls and toadstools
• Cornus slow to grow
• Crabapple ‘Toms Fileck’
• Cracked cacti
• Crooked dealings (carrots and parsnips)
• Curled leaves on daphne
• Curly carrots
• Cycad on the move
• Cycad turning brown
• Cypress hedge dying off
• Cypress Leylands gradually dying

Top

• Daphne dilemma
• Daylilies dying off
• Dead-loss daff blooms
• Dealing with liverwort
• Death of lemon tree
• Diminishing grapefruit
• Discouraging dogs
• Diseased cabbage trees
• Diseased crab apple
• Diseased cucumbers
• Diseased Liquidambar?
• Diseased magnolias
• Diseased tomatoes
• Does my Yucca need repotting?
• ‘Doggy’ patches on lawn
• Dreaded onion weed
• Droopy roses
• Dry grapefruit
• Dwarf apple enormous
• Dwarf flaxes
• Dying pony tail palm

Top

• Earwigs in dahlias
• Eradicating arum lilies
• Eradicating jasmine
  
• Eradicating Oxalis
• Evergreen climbers in tubs

Top

• Far from magic beans 
• Feijoas with leaf roller caterpillars
• Fertilising a lawn
• Ficus in the office
• Ficus Reginald
• Flaxes under attack
• Flies in worm compost
• Foliage, but no flowers
• Frangipani looking ill
• Freesias not flowering
• Fruit drop - 1
• Fruit drop - 2
• Fruit drop on citrus tree
• Fruit drop on lime tree
• Fruit split on citrus tree
• Fungal fuchsias
• Fungus and mildew on roses
• Fungus on lemon tree
• Fungus on tree
• Furcraeas

Top

• Gathering moss
• Getting rid of bamboo
• Getting rid of Dichondra
• Getting rid of liverwort
• Getting rid of Paspalum
• Getting rid of pesky plants
• Getting the best from rhubarb 
• Gold turns sneaky silver
• Grapes in decline 
• Grass grub
• Grass grubs - 1
• Grass grubs - 2
• Grass tree browning
  
• Green Goddess, not!
• Green pumpkins
• Green shield beetles
• Growing beans
  
• Green beetle
• Growing bluebells in New Zealand
• Growing chillies in winter
• Growing garlic
• Growing kumara
• Growing kumara, yams and potatoes
• Growing macadamias
• Growing mango from seed
• Growing mangoes
• Growing pineapple
• Growing plants under mature trees
• Growing tamarillos
• Growing yams
  
• Growing yams and leeks

Top

• Hebe loses leaves
• Hedging your bets
• Holes in pepper tree leaves
• Holes in strawberry leaves
• Holes in orchid flower
  
• Holy succulents
• Horse manure for the garden
• How can I protect my plants from frost?
• How do I best grow my leeks?
• How do I look after my fruit trees?
• How do I protect my veggie planter box from frost?
• How to stratify seeds
• Hoya won’t flower

Top

• Ideal soil mix
• Improving clay soils
• Improving soil
• Improving soil quality
• Indoor ficus - 1
• Indoor ficus - 2
• Invasion of thrips
• Invasive bamboo
• Ivy and jasmine are attacking my natives
• Ivy taking over

Top

• Japanese bitter orange
• Jeyes Fluid
• Juiceless lemons

Top

• Katydids on my citrus
• Katydids on roses
• Killing off oxalis
  
• Kinky brassicas
  
• Kitty litter in the compost?
• Kitty quandaries
• Kiwifruit and conifers
  
• Kniphofias

Top

• Lack of pollinators and weeds in compost
• Lanky potatoes
• Lavatera woes
• Lavender woes
• Lawn fungus
• Laying down a thyme lawn
• Leaf curl on peach tree
• Leafless begonias
• Leggy cabbage trees
• Leggy grevilleas
• Lemon tree over-fertilised
• Lesions on tamarillo
• Less than lush lavender
• Less than perfect pansies
• Leucadendron flowers rotting
• Lichen on my azaleas
• Lichen on my feijoa trees
• Lichen-covered tree
• Lime chips detrimental?
• Liverwort a nuisance
• Looking after avocados and citrus
• Loopy caterpillars
• Lopsided lemon
• Loquat not fruiting
• Lost its golden touch (tainui, Pomaderris kumeraho)
• Low strike rate for Ranunculus
• Lumpy leaves
• Lumpy leaves on camellia

Top

• Macrocarpa mulch for sandy soil
• Maidenhair care
• Making a meal of it
• Maggots in potting mix
• Mealy bug on Clematis
• Mealy bugs
• Mealy bugs on pony tail palm
• Mealybug
• Mildew on dahlias
• Misshapen strawberries
• Mite menace
• Monarch caterpillars gone
• ‘Mop Top’ Robinias causing headache
• Moss in lawn
• Moth orchids sulk (Phalaenopsis)
• Mould on African Violet
• Moving a mandarin tree
• Moving a maple
• Mulberry tree
• Mulching bamboo
• My anemones won’t flower
• My anthurium won’t flower
• My chives flower too soon
• My daphne smells horrible!
• My daphnes are losing their leaves
• My Edgeworthia is yellowing
• My frangipani won’t bloom
• My gerberas won’t flower
• My hebes won’t flower
• My hibiscus flower too late
• My Hydrangea won’t flower
• My irises are being eaten
• My kaffir lime is poorly
• My kittens chew my indoor plants
• My succulents are being eaten
• My tomatoes are segmenting
• My tomatoes won't ripen
• Myrtle cuttings
• Myrtle tree
• Mystery tree

Top

• Name that poppy
• Narcissus fly attacks
• New garden site
• No flowers on my Hippeastrum
• No seeds on sunflower
  
• Not so perfect pansies
  
• NPK fertiliser

Top

• Odd bromeliads
• Old trick
• Onion weed and oxalis
• Orangeberry (Rubus pentalobus)
  
• Ornamental cherry oozing goo
• Ornamental grapes
• Oxalis and ginger

Top

• Palm reading
• Passionfruit splitting
• Patchy lawn - 1
• Patchy lawn - 2
• Patchy lawn - 3
• Patchy leaves on echium
• Peaches not so peachy
• Pesky bullrushes
• Pesky snails
• Pesky weeds
• Pesky weevils
• Pesky whitefly
• Pesky whiteflies
• Pesky whitefly - 1
• Pesky whitefly - 2
• Pesky woodlice
• Pests on beans
• Pests on raspberries
• Pine needles are killing my grass
• Pittosporum problems
• Plague of aphids
• Plague of thrips - 1
• Plague of thrips - 2
• Plagued with whitefly
• Planting in pots
• Planting shelter belts
• Plants for exposed deck
• Plants for holiday home
• Plants to repel mosquitoes
• Plum tree not fruiting
• Pohutukawa - ‘bubbles’ on young leaves
• Pohutukawa with curly leaves
• Poor fruit on mandarin
• Poorly Knights lily
• Poorly peace lily
• Poorly pepper tree
• Poorly protea
• Poorly puka and golden ake ake
• Poorly xeronema
• Port wine magnolia with yellow leaves
• Potato blight
• Potato woes
• Powdery mildew on oaks
• Powdery mildew on rhodo
• Praying mantis - good or bad?
• Preventing leaf curl and die-back on fruit trees
• Primroses changed colour
• Problem with weeds
• Problematic lilies
• Problematic passionfruit
• Problems with Pukas
• Problems with slaters
• Producing giant pumpkins
• Propagate Scleranthus biflorus
• Propagating cypress
• Propagating dianthus
• Propagating karaka
• Propagating natives from seed
• Propagating tree paeonies
• Propagating yuccas
• Protecting avocado trees
• Pruning a cherry tree
• Pruning a clematis
• Pruning a cypress
• Pruning a yucca
• Pruning apples
• Pruning apricot and plum trees
• Pruning Citrus
• Pruning fuchsias
• Pruning hydrangeas
• Pruning Mexican Orange Blossom
• Pruning Oleander
• Pruning Pandorea
• Pruning passionfruit
• Pruning roses
• Pruning standard roses
• Pruning tamarillos
• Pruning wisteria
• Pseudopanax woes
• Pumpkins, courgettes not producing

Top

• Quince tree with leaf spot

Top

• Radishes
• Red bottlebrush tree
• Red-brown patches on lawn
• Red-flowering manuka
• Red-less rhubarb
• Removing moss and hydrocotyle from lawns
• Removing suckers
• Removing tree stumps
• Repotting anthuriums
• Resprout a cabbage tree
• Retarding grass growth
  
• Rhodo won't flower (Rhododendron yakushimanum)
• Rhododendron care
• Ribbonwood trees
• Root rot in potted plants
• Rosa ‘Margaret Merrill’
• Roses under attack
• Rosemary hedge
• Rotting feijoa
  
• Rust and black spot on roses
• Rust in Roses
• Rust on freesias
• Rust on gerberas
• Rust on gladioli - 1
• Rust on gladioli - 2
• Rust on rhubarb
• Rusty leaves

Top

• Sad-looking lilies
• Sad-looking yucca
• Safe-to-eat spuds?
• Sauromatum venosum
• Saving a naranjilla
• Saving sunflower seeds
• Scale (on lemon tree) and brown tips (on hydrangea)
• Scale insect on Norfolk pine
• Scale insects
• Scale-like creatures on bromeliad
• Scaly-skinned citrus
• Scarred leaves
• Seed sowing
• Serious sandflies
• Shade trees
• Shallots
• Shaping abutilons
• Shifting a nikau
• Shifting tree ferns
• Shirley and soldier poppies
• Shoot on ponytail
• Short on selenium
• Should I have moved my magnolia?
• Shy dogwood
• Shy Poor Knights lily
• Sick cabbage tree
• Sickly indoor palm
• Silk tree with frost-bite
• Silver birch
• Silvering rhododendrons
• Slow composting
• Slug-resistant plants
• Slugs on apple tree
• Slugs on plum tree
• Smelly and gluggy compost heap
• Solomon’s seal taking over
• Something’s eating my camellia buds
• Something’s eating my canna lilies
• Something’s eating my citrus
• Something’s eating my kowhai
• Sooty mould
• Sooty mould on citrus
• Spider mite on roses - 1
• Spider mite on roses - 2
• Spiky citrus
• Spittle bugs
• Split hibiscus
• Splotches on flax and cabbage trees
• Spots on bromeliads
• Spots on hippeastrum
• Spotted pittosporum
• Spotty dahlias
• Spray drift
• Spreading alstroemeria
• Sprouting ponytail
• Stemming borer scourge
• Stephanotis from seed
• Stinging nettle
• Stinging nettles a curse
• Straggly olive trees
• Strange avocado
• Strangled by moth plants
• Stunted hyacinths
• Success with impatiens
• Succulent won't flower
• Suckering Pernettya
• Syringa ‘Katherine Havermeyer’

Top

• Taking cuttings from Dracaenas
• Taking cuttings from orange trees
• Tamarillos
• Tamarillo troubles
• Tamarillo won’t fruit
• Tecophilaea cyanocrocus
• The right bamboo
• Thinning citrus
• Thorny lemon tree
• Thrips a curse
• Thrips damage
• Thrips on potted vireyas
• Thuja infested with moths
• Tiny worms eating my plants
• Tomatoes and blight
• Tomatoes in polythene bags
• Tomatoes won’t fruit
• Too much snail bait?
• Training a weeping rose
• Transplanting a Dracaena
• Transplanting a fern
• Transplanting citrus
• Transplanting lilies
• Transplanting red Cordyline
• Transplanting trees
• Tree borer
• Tree ferns in pots
• Trees wrong colour
• Trimming a queen palm
• Trimming alder trees
• Trimming lavender and herbs
• Trouble sowing brassicas
• Trouble with beans
• Troublesome Oxalis
• Tuberose tips
• Tulips swamped
• Two-spotted mite
• Two-stemmed pine

Top

• Underplanting a Phoenix palm
• Ungainly Gardenia
  
• Unhappy bay laurel
• Unhappy hydrangeas
• Unhappy roses
• Unhealthy citrus tree
• Unhealthy hostas
  
• Unhealthy rose
• Unhealthy roses
• Unhealthy tomatoes
• Unhealthy Wisteria
• Unsightly irises
• Unusual flower
• Unwanted tree stumps
• Unwelcome inhabitants
• Using chemicals in the garden
• Using pyrethrum
• Using raw seaweed on the garden
• Using vinegar to deter cats

Top

• Venus Flytrap
• Viburnum leaves turning brown

Top

• Wandering Willie
• Waning wisteria
• Warding off scale (on golden totara)
• Wasp nest
• Water Gardens - Adding water to pond
• Water Gardens - American Skunk Cabbage
• Water Gardens - Aphids on water plants
• Water Gardens - Aponogeton dystacius
• Water Gardens - Best water lilies
• Water Gardens - Bio filters
• Water Gardens - Calla lilies
• Water Gardens - Clean ponds
• Water Gardens - Combating algae
• Water Gardens - Controlling duckweed
• Water Gardens - Copper pipe
• Water Gardens - Corkscrew rush
• Water Gardens - Dividing water lilies
• Water Gardens - Dizzy fish
• Water Gardens - Fibre Optic Plant
• Water Gardens - Fish dying
• Water Gardens - Fountain
• Water Gardens - Gasping fish
• Water Gardens - Goldfish varieties
• Water Gardens - Grass carp
• Water Gardens - Growing aquarium plants outdoors
• Water Gardens - Growing carnivorous plants
• Water Gardens - Growing lotus plants
• Water Gardens - Hungry fish
• Water Gardens - Leaking pond
• Water Gardens - Leaking ponds?
• Water Gardens - Lifting water irises
• Water Gardens - Oxygenating plants
• Water Gardens - Planting water lilies
• Water Gardens - Pond filters
• Water Gardens - Problems with pond liner
• Water Gardens - River boulders
• Water Gardens - Sealing ponds
• Water Gardens - Sludge build-up
• Water Gardens - Submerged plants
• Water Gardens - Tubifex worms
• Water Gardens - Using river boulders
• Water Gardens - UV clarifier
• Water Gardens - Water hawthorn
• Water Gardens - Water lilies
• Water Gardens - Water lily pots
• Water Gardens - White Cloud Mountain Minnows
• Water Gardens - Winter plants
• Water Gardens - Yellow water iris
• Water Gardens - Zebra Rush
• Waterlily camelia
• Watery woes
• Wayward plum tree
• Weeds among chamomile
• Weeds in lawn
• Weeping cherry
• Weeping fig
• Weeping fuchsias
• What are rose hips used for?
• What can I plant in my clay soil?
• What next for cyclamen?
• What to do with wood ash?
• What's bugging my hibiscus?
• What's eating my macadamia nuts?
• When to prune Hibiscus
• Where are all the flowers? (Dwarf Australian frangipani, Hymenosporum ‘Gold Nugget’)
• Where are the acorns?
• Where do the monarchs go?
• White mould on Astelias
• White secretions on Grevillea
• Whitefly infestation
• Why won't my pepinos ripen?
• Will lavender grow in shade?
• Will my swan plant survive?
• Wilting Photinia
• Wilting tulips
• Wind-damaged plants
• Wind tolerant plants
• Winter care for succulents
• Wireworm in amongst the veggies
• Wisteria in containers
• Woolly growth on fruit tree
• Woolly nightshade

Top

(no listings)

• Yam seedlings
• Yellow leaves on citrus - 1
• Yellow leaves on citrus - 2
• Yellow leaves on cycad
• Yellow leaves on lemon tree
• Yellow leaves on michelia
• Yellow leaves on puka
  
• Yellow leaves on Rhododendrons
• Yellow yuccas
• Yellowing daphne
• Yellowing gardenias
• Yellowing leaves on cycad
• Yellowing Phoenix palm
• Yew who
  
• Yucky-looking yucca

Top

• Zucchini fruit rotting

Top