I have Skimia

I lost a skimmia this year in just the same way and couldn't discover why. It was my female one. Sadly the male next to it is showing signs of going the same way. No insects, no attack visible on the leaves and nothing apparently amiss with the roots. Wish I could be more helpful, but you are not alone! At least yours has some healthy looking shoots on it, so I'd cut off all the dying bits and see what happens.

Do you know which variety of Skimmia that is? Most varieties are happy in any soil so long as it doesn't dry out too much and is reasonably fertile, but S. reevesiana does not like lime, prefers acid conditions. I only ask because you mention losing your blueberry, and those must be planted in acidic soil, or if in a pot, ericaceous compost, because they're lime haters too.
To be honest, though, the picture doesn't show chlorotic leaves on most of the plant, which is what you'd see were it a ph problem - it just looks as though something has affected a particular branch or branches of the shrub. Check the base, see if there's any damage or soft, soggy areas.

Thanks steragram and Bamboo for your comments. I will try as you suggested and remove the dying branches. The Blueberry was in a pot with erricaceous compost and ha dbeen very healthy prior to the leaves going brown all of a sudden othe plants aroun the garden had lots of leaves that suddenly went brown to but they survived. We have lots of winds here which may have been the reason but they all got through a few years without problems.

I am also thinking of trying a fig tree (Brown Turkey) this year any pointers will be appreciated.

cheers

dolafankid

any further help will be appreciated

I have a brown turkey fig in a pot on my patio and one in the wooded area of my garden. Both thrive and produce fruit, but the one at the bottom of the garden in poor soil seems to be the happiest. (the birds obviously like the fruit best there too as I was intending to pick some today only to fine beak marks in most of them!) I believe they like rough ground that is not too well fertilised.

hi Patfran

Thanks for the tip although we dont have any woods I have an area where it may work. I also will put one on the patio I have some very large pots.

Dolau fan kid