Recently bought Hollyhock going downhill

[Marb67]

Well for the life of me I do not understand how a perfectly healthy Hollyhock that comes from an excellent nursery can go downhill so quickly while still in the pot it was purchased. It seems just crossing the threshold of my garden brings death to some of my plants. Have checked for vine weevil and nothing there but it is going yellow and sickly, I dare not plant it for fear of loosing yet another purchase.

I give up posting photos here because I get “upload failed” all the time from m ipad. Not had any problems in the past with same camera.

[mothhawk]

Did you by any chance give it some chicken manure, Marb?

[nickdub]

Well for the life of me I do not understand how a perfectly healthy Hollyhock that comes from an excellent nursery can go downhill so quickly while still in the pot it was purchased. It seems just crossing the threshold of my garden brings death to some of my plants. Have checked for vine weevil and nothing there but it is going yellow and sickly, I dare not plant it for fear of loosing yet another purchase.

I give up posting photos here because I get “upload failed” all the time from m ipad. Not had any problems in the past with same camera.

When you say " Have checked for vine weevil ... " did you knock the plant put of its pot and have a look at the roots ? If so what did they look like ?

[Marb67]

Yes and didn’t see any vine weevil grubs. No chicken manure.

[nickdub]

Yes and didn’t see any vine weevil grubs. No chicken manure.

OK - did everything look normal, ie no discolouration or whatever ?

[Nicos]

Why not take it back and ask their advice?
They may replace it or advise on what to do with it.
Ask for the head gardener.

[veggiechicken]

Why don't you take it back to the nursery and ask their opinion?

SNAP, Nicos.

[Squingy]

It's hard to say without any photo to go by, checking the roots would help as Nickdub suggested.

It sounds like it's happened to a few of your plants before, very worrying.

Is the plant inside or outside now and where was it in the nursery - sometimes the change in temp, humidity etc from nursery to home stresses the plant and can cause it to yellow. Eg is it in full sun or shade - and what was it in before?
Maybe try to recreate nursery conditions.

Perhaps it's overwatering or underwatering? The soil in the pot would tell.

Maybe it's overfertilisation or something you've put in changed the soil pH?

Last time this happened to my marigold it was whitefly BTW.

Good luck Marb.

[Scarlet]

I give up posting photos here because I get “upload failed” all the time from m ipad. Not had any problems in the past with same camera.

Your photos are too big....crop them slightly before uploading from your iPad.

[Marb67]

I did crop them.

[SarrissUK]

Try getting a resizer app to make them physically smaller. Sometimes they don't look big on screen, but actually only show at 20% of their size. I use an app called 'Image resizer'.

[Marb67]

Well it seems to be getting smaller and smaller (as so many of my newly bought plants seem to go)
It was outside at the nursery (a mile down the road) and the same in my garden kept outside. When I tipped it out the pot I didn't see hardly any roots, not even filling the pot but I thought they had shallow roots anyway. Can't be vine weevil as non in the pot.

[bario1]

Why not plant it out or pot it up? Looks pretty cramped in that pot.

[Scarlet]

Yep as Bario has said, the pot is much too small. When it starts to grow the pot will tip over too. Either plant in the ground or get it in a much larger pot. Drying out too quickly won’t help it either.

[Marb67]

Well I did think of potting it on but as the roots haven't even found anywhere near the inside of the pot I thought a bigger pot would only make matters worse. They say potting plants that haven't filled their pot into much bigger pots inhibits growth (tomatoes for example) but this may not apply to certain plants.