crispy black edges to some of my plants' new leaves

My dwarf acer, bay tree (in pot), one clematis and a lavender all seem to have a problem with new leaves - whilst the plants are still thriving in themselves at least for the moment, most of the new leaves have developed black edges which are crispy to the touch - when you handle them, these edges of the leaf just powder away in my fingers. I should imagine this won't be great news if it continues. Help - is this possible wind damage or a disease?

Wind damage- it has appeared- on my bedding salvias and nasturiums in the last couple of days-they should grow out of it

thanks - what a relief! when the sun ever does shine again, we'll be able to see some improvement, I hope

I haven't got crispy black edges but my bay tree (bush) has the worse case of sooty mould I've ever seen.   It was fine last year, bit of scale insect but not a major problem.   This year, looks like it's been down the pit!   So I chopped the tops off yesterday, left the three main stems with two sprouting leaf nodes each.   So now it has two chances!

does sooty mould only affect the edges or the whole leaf, Auntie?

This is just confusinng the issue-you have not got sooty mould-that is a fungus disease-this is an image of sooty mould

http://www.yates.co.nz/images/nz/problem-solver/sooty-mould/sooty-mould-1-la.jpg

not what you desribed at all

Geoff's right - sooty mould is a fungus that grows on the sugar excreted by scale insect. Get rid of the scale insect, clean the tree and it'll be fine. Nothing like wind damage.

Sorry to have disrupted the thread.