Is it possible to save this one ?

Hello all, hope you are keeping safe,

I've got this guy in my garden (don't know the name), it is not very healthy for some reason, every year I am removing some dead wood, in spring some new growth appears but very little and they quickly join rest of the unhealthy leaves.

Is there anything I can do to improve the situation ? Or does it have to go ?

Many thanks,

Charles

 

Looks like a Pieris. If so then the most likely problem is that your soil is alkaline and they really do need an acid soil.

 

It is indeed, thanks for the identification.

Is there a practical way to make its soil acidic ? It is currently sitting in London soil, I suppose mostly clay, hence alkaline.

 

Looks like it surround by lime stone chipping as well ? which are alkaline . You could try potting it up into ericacous compost and cut it back hard and cross your fingers . Or move it else where but I doubt it be happy unless you give it acidic soil conditions or at least neutral . Personally I get rid , the plants got to fit the garden / conditions not the other way around.

 

Hi,

Trying to change the general ph of an area like that is very difficult, best to use plants suited the the ph of your garden rather than the other way around.

What about the gravel bed, from your pic it looks like limestone chippings, so that may make the soil very alkaline.

Also not sure what the small green plant is around its stem ? what it will be doing its stopping the rain getting down into the roots as well as eating up any nutrients.

If you really want to keep that plant there, then suggest you buy a large pot/tub and use some peat based compost or ericaceous compost , both acid based, and then sink the pot into the gravel bed, leaving it just proud of the chippings.

Edit - Oops - @Perki beat me to it

 

Realistically, no. I've seen many attempts at growing Acid loving plants on Alkaline soil, but I've never seen one with big happy plants 10 years later.

I agree. I think the best advice is to not grow plants that need acid soil on alkaline soil, pick something that will grow well instead.

My Mother wanted a Pieris - its a very pretty plant. Grew it in a big tub with the right soil, wasted loads of time and money on chelated chemicals, but it never looked happy and I can't believe (benefit of 20:20 hindsight) that it ever actually fulfilled her expectations

 

Thanks for all the informative responses, there is another Pieris in the garden, not far away from this one and that one seems to be happy. So perhaps the soil is ok-ish but limestone chippings are to blame. I'll give it a go and remove chippings around the plant and give it a bit more time before I remove it.

Thanks again.

 

Soil acidity can change locally around a garden, perhaps more so where there are alkaline materials / rocks dotted about. Charlie Pridham at Roseland House Garden and Nursery talks of how much the pH varies around his garden ... but I can't remember whether he attributes it to something obvious like Calcium rocks ... might be worth a go with a soil test kit?

 

I've got fairly neutral soil with the occasionaly lump of chalk in it, but manage to get away with growing a couple of camellias and a small rhodo.

I think its probably the chippings that are causing most of the problem, I'm assuming it was smaller than that when planted, so probably grew well for a few years.