Mr Grinch's Garden

Ilex Crenata then for me around the lawn for the future.
They have got wider but no that much taller. Im not waiting 17 years though to get to 2f !!!

G

 

Do you reckon they grow faster than Box? (Don't suffer from Box Blight of ourse, so that's a bonus ...)

I'm growing mine on (taken from cuttings a couple of years ago) in pots in the greenhouse. I won't plant them out until they are a decent size. I think a warm Autumn (as well as a decent Summer!) is important as they make their growth somewhat later on in the season.

 

Ive heard the Crenata does grow quicker and you can treat them a bit "rougher" and they are reletivly trouble free. Am i wrong ? Is 17 years to get to 2 foot normal ?

My plants where anout 6-8 inches tall and about 3 inches wide when i got them. They have grown outwards but only about an inch a year in height.

G

 

No, absolutely not. But ... outside, and not well cared for (I don't mean neglected, but I mean no TLC as such ) then they will be slow.

I did wonder about constructing a Cloche over them to encourage them during the Summer. You'd have to take it off it the Summer was very warm ... but in a wet summer it would keep the rain off, which would help with blight prevention.

Mine did about 4" in the greenhouse last year, but they are only 9" - 12" tall now, a couple of years on from taking cuttings. I would have said that 6" per annum was doable.

I wonder if they were very potbound when planted, or there is a soild "pan" under where they were planted, or they are getting very wet (drainage not very good) or some other problem with the location where they are planted?

 

As always i fear thats its probably a soil thing and not the best conditions for them. I did add plenty of organic stuff but as always with my soil, it doesnt seem to make much difference. As for a pan, the whole garden is on clay. You dig done a foot and you get yellow clay a meter deep. Not much i can do about that.
Last year in the wet, they were ok, stayed reasonably green and grew and inch maybe. The previous summer when it was dryer, they suffered a bit with scorch i think. In dry spells they are watered and also fed with a liquid seawead feed. Not sure what else i can do.

G

 

So long as you don't need a pick-axe to get through the soil layer immediately below the top soil that's fine.

I've lived in houses that were built on what had been a field; ploughing over many many years had run the tractor tires in the furrow as the field was ploughed, and that compacted the clay into a solid layer - so called "plough pan". It was so hard it burst the hydraulic pipes on a small mechanical digger I hired - I had to get a full sized JCB in order to get through it! So if you don't have that problem the roots will be able to grow into your sub-soil - even if it isn't very inviting.

I'd be inclined to take the Box plants out, dig a decent trench - 18" deep, and 2' wide, fill that with nice soil mix, and replant. If the trench [once refilled] is just going to fill with water in wet weather then I think it comes back to needing to put some drainage in.

I remember reading something Christo Lloyd wrote that his father had put [clay pipe in those days] land drains in under all the newly planted hedges and what a huge difference it made to getting them established.

You could hoike the plants out and plant them in "troughs" until they are bigger, and then plant the "troughs" (which is how the Instant Hedge people grow them), but I suspect that isn't very viable.

Or flog the plants on eBay and buy some Instant Hedge - if you can find any at a price that you want to afford :(

 

The soil's heavy but i dont think a pan is the issue. Thankfully, this upper part doesnt suffer from standing water, although like all clay can get wet and conversly dry in summer. Would up rooting them again put then back for another year ? I appreciate better soil would be put back.

G

 

My thinking is that they can't grow any slower than they have been :(

I wouldn't want to disturb them either, but they definitely should be growing faster than they are ...

... unless they are Buxus suffruticosa perhaps?

 

This is the only thread I ever check on GC anymore. As interested in this as my own garden! Can't wait to see what aspect of your garden you change next.

Keep up the good work Mr Grinch!

 

They were sold to me as semperverians. Thats what i asked for, hopefully thats what i bought. How can you tell they are suffruticosa ?
When some leaves have a little bit of yellow around the edges, what does that mean ?

G

 

Thanks for the input.
I use this thread as a place i can vent my spleen but also to share some of the nice things regarding gardening

My kids don't call me a Grinch for nothing

 

Daff's. Ive got loads in the garden, all types but some clumps are not performing so this spring i will mark with a cane the clumps i want to keep. All the rest, i will dig up and re-plant with new in the autumn.
Ive marked two clumps of February Gold this AM, they are so reliable and get better and better. They are staying

 

I am facinated too and keeping up with developments on this thread. my box are in heavy clay and grow well. What can we feed and mulch them with in the spring I wonder... Toddles off to google again