azalea japonica

can anyone give some information on how to look after said plant

 

It does well in partial shade, but I belive will grow in full sun. It likes acid soil. It doesn't like to dry out but don't plant it in the pond, don't water it with tap water if your water is hard and don't mulch with mushroom compost or feed it with fish'blood and bone. If it's the deciduous type you may find around Febuary it looks dead, some of them do they perk up when it get a teeny bit warmer. If it looks dead any other time of the year dig it up and check for vine weevils. Enjoy ther're lovely, I've got three little ones.

 

hi folks
omg i had no idea there was so much involed how do u find out about your soil how do u change it how do u know this stuff ?? lol do u learn it from kin or in school where? i have read a load of books but still have no idea how do u water your plants if you only get hard water ? how do plants grow in the woods and stuff on there own with out all the fuss how do u find out what plants are uk native
my soil has a lot of chalk but i tend to put my plants in pots what would i need to do to the earth to transform it to better suit my plants ?

[ 31. May 2005, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: catsclaw ]

 

There are some plants that only grow on chalk, there are some that grow on acid or chalk and there are some that only do well on acid.
There's no easy answer, you need to learn about plants, and what best suits your conditions, that is "alkaline".
In nature if a plant isn't suited to a certain area it dies. As gardeners we try to help along the ones that are not quite suited, although there are some that you will have no chance with.
Changing alkaline soil to acid is not really an option on a large scale, so I would carry on growing the acid lovers in pots.
pete

 

There's a great book called right plant right place which 'does what it says on the tin' tells you what to grow in the site, soil and sun conditions you have. Pollution tolerant for cities, salt tolerant for costal areas, plant for damp shade, dry shade, plants for containers, acid soil, clay soil, sandy soil,chalky soil. What ever conditions you have this book will tell you a plant to put there and putting them where they want to be is half the work already done.
Liz to water plants if you only have hard water you need a way to collect rain water. The easiest way is to fit a rain diverter to a down pipe from your gutter into a waterbutt (some of the one you can get from garden centres these days are quite pretty, they even make fake terracotta ones.)Make sure you put it on a stand so that you can fit your watering can underneath.
You can buy soil testing kits at garden centres to find out the ph of your soil or you can buy a meter which you stick in the ground, which I think is better because you can test it in lots of different places, it can vary in different parts of the garden.

 

thanks helen
its quite a demanding hobby this gardening it all makes me wonder if it really is right for me i am only a dabbler with plants lillies and roses are my favs ,saying that my first rose tree i had i gave up on and put it out in my front garden and it has never been better ,and hubbie mowered it down by mistake a couple of times it grows back wonderfully with no help a bit like a miracle which is what makes me think atually i could do this so this year i bought some lovely plants from my local garden centre ,a leaping salmon ,two calmatis(1 of which looks dead ) 1 puple and 1 amber heurchas,and 6 pack of all year round heather ,as well as from vanmewan ,i bought 3 types of lavender (to help with the aphids ) and a tri colour standered rose ,and as last year my mum taught me to take cuttings fron ivy and rosemary i have a few babies of them which i am very proud as they are doing well (i know they are the esiest cutting to take but it was my first time )at times it all seams hopeless but at other times when you can see the wonders of nature its the best feeling ever
i have been using the book super gardener by alan titmarsh ,and this year i dug over my intire garden by hand and have started to make my own compost .
at the moment everything is in pots as we will be moving and i wanted these things to go along with me .
anyway i have rambled enough