I got given an acer about this time last year, and put it in a pot because I didn't have anywhere ready to plant it. It did fine last summer, and looked good in the spring with new leaves coming out, but then the tips started dying back (colour going out of the stems and leaves dropping off), from about the middle of April. I tried cutting the worst affected stems back, but it has continued to spread. Now most of the leaves are wilting or look like they are dying. I'm in the Midlands in the UK. I have been watering it through drier spells, we've just had a week of quite a lot of rain.
Is it verticillium wilt, or something else? Is it a goner, or is there something I can do to save it?
Edit: Still looking for an answer on this, although by a few days later basically all the leaves had shrivelled up and dropped off. I think it is most likely dead given it's late spring/early summer here. But I'm still interested to know what caused the problem, whether I need to clean the pot up before using it again (and what to clean it with), and whether there are certain plants I should avoid putting in the pot if it's a disease that can be transferred between species.