Wealden Times | WT260 | January 2024 | Good Living Supplement inside

Honey Fungus
the Bogeyman
Sue Whigham shares
experience and advice
on how to deal with
honey fungus
We’ve always had a part of
the garden where I’d try out
interesting shrubs only to
find that they turned up their toes after a
couple of years. Most disappointing was
the Azara microphylla that never put on
any fresh growth and got scrawnier and
scrawnier. Actually, I think that it would
have been a slightly disappointing shrub
if it had survived as its relative, Azara
serrata is much more exuberant and
deliciously scented. Little did I know.
There’s a lovely specimen at Great Dixter
with its bright, bright yellow flowers
just at the right height to immerse
yourself in their fragrance as you pass.
So then we planted pittisporums,
early flowering viburnums and all
manner of other things. They’ve gone
now and the only plants that are doing
well are a medlar (great for showy
autumn colour) and a healthy bay tree.
Never mind, there is still a good show
of oriental irises which we inherited.
Honey fungus tends not to touch
perennials, luckily. And we’ve now got
the perfect spot for a giant trampoline
firmly secured to a trellis to save it from
becoming airborne any time soon.
So what is the problem? Well,
everything came to a head after the dry
summer of 2021 when several mature,
multi stemmed hornbeams started losing
their leaves early, as well as suffering
branch dieback. Then this year the
leaves seemed to be smaller and generally
sickly. A big patch of honey fungus
mushrooms several feet away from
one of the stricken trees confirmed the
worst. The trees had most probably been
harbouring honey fungus for years and
the drought and the fungus combined
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