Are My New Plants Dead? They Look Dead!

Deciduous plants that were transplanted during winter typically come into leaf much later than the same species of plant established nearby, and evergreen plants might drop their leaves prior to growing new ones.

This can be a shock to new gardeners who planted, say, a new beech hedge in late February.
When May arrives and their plants are still not in leaf, they look at all the lush foliage on their neighbour’s mature hedge and think that the beech they bought must be dead! However, this is rarely the case.

What is almost always happening is this: leafy growth above ground must follow behind root growth below ground.

If the roots hit a little “unnatural speed bump” like being dug up, packed in a bag, delivered to you, and planted in unfamiliar soil, then the foliage must patiently wait its turn until some new roots develop.
If the plant did not follow this sequence, it would leaf out normally and then immediately wilt, because the roots would not be able to meet the growing plant’s moisture requirements.

How fast these new roots develop mainly depends on:

• The plant species (Oak is ponderously slow, for example)
• Your location (cold soil will slow root growth)
• The weather (cooler weather also means cooler soil, hence slower growth)
• The size of the plant when it was transplanted (smaller plants replace their lost roots faster than bigger ones)
• When you planted them during winter (the earlier you plant, the more time roots have to establish before Spring – there are some exceptions to this, but it applies to pretty much all trees and hedging)

So, if you planted a large specimen of a slow growing species in a cold region, late in the bareroot season (after late February), followed by a cool Spring, it is normal for it to take as long as July for it to finally come into leaf.

So please don’t contact us until July with your claim under our guarantee – it’s still too early to be sure in June!

How Can I Tell If My New Plants are Dead?

The easiest way to tell for sure if the plants that you planted bareroot last Winter are dead is simply to wait, and water them in dry weather.
If they have not made any leaves by July, with no signs of bursting leaf buds either, then they are almost certainly dead.

Before July arrives, you can inspect the youngest stems and their leaf buds.
A healthy plant will have firm bark, usually smooth on the new growth, that does not give much when you squeeze it. The leaf buds will be firm and well attached.

A dead plant’s new bark will begin to visibly shrivel and loosen, the new stems will soften and give when you pinch them (and then turn dry, brittle and snap easily), and the leaf buds will go soft and come off easily.

But wait! Some die-back of the new growth doesn’t mean the whole plant is dead: many plants will regrow from lower down.
Privet is a famous example: the topmost stems often die back a bit after transplanting, no matter how careful you are, followed by a surge of new growth from nearer the base (that last quality is part of what makes privet such an ideal hedging plant).