You've got ink spot disease.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kangaroo Paws: Pests and Diseases

Not necessarily (I tried to amend my statement yesterday, but wasn't able to). Kangaroo Paws turn black easily. Ink spot is one possible reason why, but this actually looks more like cold damage or chemical damage to me.

At any rate, the treatment is the same. Go out with a propane torch and burn away any remaining above-ground tissue. It'll resprout shortly.

Dick, I have a question about Kangaroo Paw - my gardener cuts them back every fall to the ground. Is this the normal practice? They have sort of struggled to come back since we moved in, and he does this. I was just at a San Diego MG seminar and one of the classes I attended was on plants from Australia. I told the instructor about this, and she was somewhat horrified. So, not sure how to treat them - cut them back or not??

Patty S.

We have a group of these in our front yard which was re-landscaped early last year. I did NOT cut them to the ground. I cut only the flowering stems after the blooms faded, but did not cut any of the leaves. Yikes, what would make the gardener think to do that???

Not sure, Jenn, but thinking that maybe he's grouping them with grasses. I'm going to talk with him next week about NOT doing this this year, and letting them grow. I can trim out the spent flower stalks to encourage more bloom. I was somewhat horrified myself when he did it the first time. Didn't check with anyone, and he did it a second time last fall. That's when I figured this was absolutely not the right thing to do for this species. Confirmed in the MG class.

Patty S.

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