Glen,

I'm curious about how these plants were 'packaged when you bought them. They were containerized plants, weren't they? If they were balled and burlapped plants, I'd be a little concerned that the abnormally early start to hot weather might have hurt B&B plants that were planted in April.

Also, did you check the undersides of the leaves to see if any sort of insect is eating on the leaves?

The only issues I've had with Indian Hawthorne has been: (1) entomosporium leaf spot, which does not look like the browning you're seeing on your plants, and (2) occasional freeze damage (from a much colder than usual cold spell) that does leave foliage that looks like your plants. However, I'm fairly sure you aren't seeing freeze damage since the last freeze for most of us was in March, and for many of us it was in very early March.

The fact that the plants started losing their luster and started getting brown leaves about a month after being transplanted does mean it could be transplant shock, which can show up in some trees and shrubs up to a year after they were transplanted.

Has the browning continued since you first noticed it....like, is it progressing into more parts of the plant, or has it stayed exactly the same since you first noticed it?

Also, have you used a trowel to dig down about six inches to check the soil moisture down deep?

You said that the ones that had started to flower now have dried flower buds. Does that mean every flower bud dries up or just the ones on the same twigs as the browned leaves?

Usually on this sort of thing, my gut instinct is right....but on your plants I have two different gut feelings--one is that they got too dry at some point and the damage appeared, but the stronger one is that it is a disease. However, I've never seen a disease do this to Indian Hawthornes.

Hopefully, someone who has seen this on their plants will have an answer for you.

If they were mine, I'd take some photos to the nursery where I purchased them and ask for their advice. Since they would know exactly what variety they sold you and what diseases or other issues might be common to it, they'd likely be your best source of advice in this case.

If the browning doesn't progress and you start seeing new growth coming out that seems healthy, then I'd assume it was transplant shock. If you don't see new growth after a bit, then I'd consider that a worrisome sign in light of the browning foliage.

Finally, with most plants, if you can irrigate with soaker hoses, drip irrigation lines or a hand-held hose that puts the water on the ground and into the soil instead of on the foliage, you can prevent a lot of the diseases that are encouraged by wet foliage. In the parts of Oklahoma that normally have wet, humid springs and summers, water on foliage just adds to the tendency for fungal and bacterial diseases to attack plants. I don't know if that is as much of an issue in western OK where the humidity often...

My Indian Hawthorne turned a dull brown during the winter. It was a very cold winter for us this year. Is there anything I can do? Should I consider them gone and dig them up. They have been in the garden for 5 years and were very large and doing well until this winter. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Diseases have just about ended the commercial propagation of pink flowered indian hawthorn.

I have a problem with on of my pink Indian Hawthorne, I planted 2 from home Depot around 2 years ago to replace the two that died, one plant is thriving and the other has turned brown, they are planted about 5 feet from each other, I don't know what's wrong with it. How can one be okay and the other look so horrible?? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can save it??? The whole plant is brown and green, almost as if it was being sunburnt, didn't flower at all this year. I live in El Paso and did not have a hard winter at all.

Hmmm...that makes sense. Mine has brown spots and some leaves turning brown too. It was planted 2 years ago. Honestly, I thought it was because it got so little sun and was planted in a bed that stayed wet. (Guttering is up now and has helped with that.) My Mom had Indian Hawthorns that did very well for over 10 years until someone accidentally sprayed them with something bad while treating her lawn. Dead now.

I always wondered if the berries were medicinal like the Hawthorn tree berries.

With the Indian hawthorne berries, it would depend on each individual named cultivar (and there are many dozens, if not hundreds, though I doubt there's as many as there used to be since they have so many disease issues that they are falling from favor)---some produce berries that are so astringent as to be unpalatable although technically they are edible, some produce edible berries and some produce poisonous berries.