i would have bet on a tree root getting under there.. and stealing all available water ...

and killing a tree kills the roots.. so there would be less water stealing..

i would be curious what you find when you dig it up.. lots of dead roots from the ash.. or maple roots from a tree across the street ... or the death of the ash put it in way more sun..and it wasnt getting the water it needed ....

dig it up.. pot it.. and get it back to a good root mass.. then plant it in fall in its permanent spot..

is the wisteria going to hog water??? .. i surely dont know...

men

ken - what would your recommendation be for a sun-tolerant variety? Maybe I have one here somehere… A number of years ago I put a division of what is supposed to be ‘Elegans’ near the area I am considering for a new big one. I wanted the dense shade from it to control couchgrass moving into that area from the ditch. That has worked well - maybe I should use a division of that plant…. We moved several smaller hostas into that general area this spring and they are all doing well - so far at least! Wisterias are legumes and ours are in the ’moat bed’ - i.e. the bed that runs along the top of the ditch… So between the nitrogen-fixing from the wisteria roots and the water that flows along and soaks into the ditch after a rain, plants seem to be happy there. Where I am thinking of adding a big hosta is under the Chinese wisteria but that means it is in the moatbed too.

Digging the hosta in the picture up and growing it in a pot for the summer seems like a reasonable idea. I’ll see if we can manage that….