I planted an Alyogyne huegelii 'Santa Cruz' a few months ago. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, not far from the end of the bay, where all the soil is adobe. But my front area has been amended, and I dug a big hole for the bush so it would have plenty of planting soil to grow into before it hit the amended adobe.
It was doing great until a couple of weeks ago. New leaves and pretty lavender blooms were frequent occurrences. Now it's drooping, not flowering, and many leaves have turned yellow and dropped off. I thought maybe it hadn't gotten enough water, so I gave it a good deep watering yesterday, but it's still drooping today.
Alyogynes are supposed to be drought tolerant, but I figured since the plant wasn't really established yet, it probably needs more water for a while. But as I say, that didn't work. It's been moderately warm/hot here recently; 70s and 80s, with a few 90-degree days. When that has happened, I've watered every other day.
Is it possible that the plant's roots are sensitive about being disturbed? I hadn't heard that about Alyogynes, but I did pull it up on one side recently because it was leaning at an angle and I wanted to straighten it up. (I now have it staked.) Given that it hadn't been in the ground all that long, I didn't think it had put roots out very far, but maybe I broke enough roots while adjusting it to disturb it?
There are photos (medium and closeup shots) at:
I lost one of these to whiteflies a couple of years ago, so I was very happy that this one was doing so well. I'd appreciate any suggestions on how I can get it healthy again.
Thanks! Patty