After near flooding heavy rains, it's dropping leaves like crazy. Is this normal? I thought they were evergreen, but perhaps not so far north here about 50 miles north of F/FW? Could it be the drainage? It's heavy clay soil.
Help! My Texas Sage (Cenizo) is dropping leaves.
Hi Larissa ~ I think it very well is drainage. Is it offering to bloom. They usually do after a good rain. Mine suffered in the ground and never grew much. I dug it up and potted it as it is small and meager. It immediately began to revive. In the pot, I can provide protection from the excessive rain. Imagine that! There was a day we wanted some... pod
I agree with pod, it is probably drainage. I dug down about 5 inches in one area of my yard on Sunday and the soil is still wet from the massive rains a week ago.
Afriend lost hers a few years ago after a particularly rainy autumn. Hers was in a flat bed in the middle of the yard. Not particularly bad drainage, but just normal for our area.
In our heavy clay, they really need to be in a slightly raised area or even a little grit added to the soil for drainage. If you can get a shovel around the rootball all the way around, I would try to lift it. Maybe if you do, it will get some relief and still make it.
We planted ours on a sort of mound, in a pot, added sand to the soil as well as lime..They like alkaline soil, and covered the area at the top of the pot with little rocks..
So far they are OK..
I think this is another example of Garden Centers selling a plant that is really inappropriate for the area..It is just too wet most places for them..
I have lost them before due to too much water..
I hope your's recovers..
Lynn
Larissa ~ I think your plant will survive if you do lift it as Sweezel suggests. Mine have been moved two or three times looking for the right spot and pruned severely once by a canine gardening companion. Now in a pot, it is making another comeback. Give it a try. I am afraid the leaf shedding is what I went thru.
We have a rocky, dryer area of the garden near the road (rocky becuase the road used to be a gravel road). I think I'll move it there and give it a better chance of survival. Thanks for the help!
Good luck... please post and let all know what the outcome is...