Hi all, I have just received back some plants that a friend had been taking care of whilst I was travelling for 16 months. This polygala was a lot bushier when I left, now it's not too happy. Any ideas as to how I can get that bushiness back?
I've lifted this from the net....no idea if it's good advice as I've never managed to keep one going. Now I know why, though. Despite being sold as hardy, they're not! " this charming shrub is a very good seller for me here in west cornwall and this is what I advise my customers to do. For the first couple of years, prune it back by half in the spring and then the subsequent seasons growth again by half in the first week of August. By doing this, you form a dense bush which will be better able to stand cold weather. The problem is that they flower just about all year and so people are loathed to prune them as they always have flowers somewhere ! I have quite a few customers from your area (mostly holiday makers) and I would advise growing it in a container for this initial 'bushing up' stage and planting it out when it was a little larger and bushier, of course, ensuring you have the required acid soil, in which they do much better."
Ah thanks so much! I didn't know they liked acidic soil. In my case, pruning it back by half sounds like it would remove all of the foliage. Wont it need some foliage in order for it to get the energy it needs from the sun? This advice seems to be relevant to plants that are already bushy, not ones that are struggling :(
I didn't know they were lime-haters either, boutetm! I agree with you about pruning...every time I've cut one back to try to revive it, it has died. The only thing I can suggest to try is to give it a liquid feed of ericaceous fertiliser and then perhaps just 'tip' the shoots to encourage it to sprout new growth.
