Skimmia

I posted recently regarding my two cordylines looking in pretty bad shape in my planters. There is no coming back for these guys so I'm going to pull them out and compost them.

Moving forward I still want my two planters to have something in them and after looking at a few options I really like the look of the Skimmia. There are several types but before I choose I wanted to run it past you guys first.

I like the fact they are evergreen, they are reported to be hardy, have year round interest, don't get too big and I've read they are a good candidate for planters.

I plan to empty all the garden soil out of the planters, which was my first big mistake as I have since found out you never put plain garden soil in any pots, indoor or out, because drainage can become a real problem, which I believe was the downfall of my cordylines, along with frost too. Then I will refill with better drained soil for the skimmias.

What do you reckon? Is there anything I need to watch out for regarding skimmias in planters? Are there better similar options?

 

Thanks, I believe they need an ericaceous soil too? My plain garden soil is neutral so I'd have to mix some ericaceous soil in with it, along with the perlite?

 

I'd buy a couple of bags of JI ericaceous compost, if you can
find it.
Failing that use JI no 2 and see how they go, if they get yellow one drench of sequestrene should sort them out for 12 months.

I use tea to acidify the soil around plants that look chlorotic.

 

If you can find Skimmia reevesiana, you'll get the benefit of flowers and berries, otherwise, you need male and female plants of S. japonica

 

Yes, I've already considered this. It's not essential I get the reevesiana as I have two pots to fill, which will be reasonably close together. So I can go with the rubella (male) and a female. If I only had the one pot then reevesiana would be top of my list.

Or I could get the single reevesiana and put something completely different in my other planter. I've time to consider all options as i won't be planting until around March. Is that a good time? Sooner? Later?

 

Depends on where your planters are and what you finally decide on Skimmia are hardy, so as long as the planters are near a wall and not in a wind tunnel, you should be OK to replant now.