Pieris flowers

A lovely shrub Fran . Can be fussy about the soil its is planted in as it grows. Maybe one for ericaceous fertiliser Fran. Someone might correct me if I am wrong.

I think you're right Dorjac. Fran, the flowers are white, and the new foliage is red. It's probably hard for you to see that ;)

thanks for that, Dorjac. When I first saw it, it was drooping a bit and browny-pink, and I thought that it was on its last legs then. Noticed the white replacing the pink, and now added red. Whateer soil it's in, it seems to be happy.

I'll check about fertliser etc - lol someone's bound to back you up or sugget an alternative, Dorjca!

thanks, Karen! I'd assumed the "lot" to be foliage and the "few" to be flowers" I need to go out and take a kneeler so I can have a good long look ans study ad appreciate this plant

:)

I find they don't always look their best if it's been very wet or very cold. Might it have been either when you first saw it Fran.

very likely, Scottish, we had enough of both for a while.

question: if the red is new foliage, will it turn green to match what's already there? or will it replace them with red foliage as they drop off?

It turns as it ages Fran.

thanks, dear. lol of course I could have waited a month or so to find out for myself - if I rememebred to keep looking!

I think my soil here is near to neutral Fran. I still have to give ericaceous fertilisers to my Camellias. The leaves start to go yellow in places if I do not feed them correctly. I have never grown Pieris in this garden. In our other garden it went pale and expired due to lack of ability to absorb iron, so I believe. Those azalias in pots keep on well if they are fed E fertiliser too.

I've done nothing to the plants since Seotember, when I first came to view - I don't know how long the property had been empty, but judging by the overgrown greenery, it must have been a few months, so the plants have had to manage unaided for at least seven months, more likely nine. If the Pieris is looking good after that, it must be ok with the soil etc!

Can take a loooong time for these acid dependent plants to use up soil elements Fran. However they under perform long before they go really pale and anaemic. The Camelias bloom well cos they get what they need in a steady supply. If we entertain these plants in the garden, even if someone else put them there, its up to a keen gardener to see them right.....as my old auntie wouls say.

It occurred to me only after I'd posted my prevous comment that for all I knew, I was seeing the Pieris at its worst!

I do need to get a soil testing kit, but then I also need to get someone to read it for me - the ones I've seen have been a bit on the small side. I wnted that anyway, testing all over, it might be easier to get the gardener to do it (when I find the gardener!) then s/he can explain it to me in idiot-level terms.

No real need to soil test. The plant will let you know. Certain shrubs can get anaemic in certain soils. Bop in the sequestrene AKA ericaceous fertiliser, job done. Then do it at intervals as told on the tin

lol I need to be able to understand what they're trying to tell me!

would putting bark chips around them help or hinder?

Should be ok to put bark around. Another thing I have done from looking at the questions and answers on GoY is to put spent compost round plants as a mulch rather than the compost or dumping it in one place. If your soil is more or less neutral it won't matter much what the compost is.

I've not got around to "barking" yet; keep meaning to but other things get in the way. I want to bark as I dig, so the beds will be protected once dug; no point in putting bark on beds htat'll have to be taken up to dig those beds.

I need to drop a note to next door to ask if they mind me "barking" their side of the front divider strip - not much point only doing my side, as the bark will drift, and any benefits accrued on my side mightbe leached out by the plants on their side. of course, if they'd rather i didn't, i won't, lol save me some bark!

I usually chcuk plant pot soil into the composter, never thought of using it as a mulch. thanks for the tip!

I saw one of my older fuchsias was struggling to get back into its leafiness. Depotted it and found a motley mixture vine weevil grubs and their ghostly older kin with legs and soft white bodies. Food for ever greedy starlings. After a careful pick through the compost (not a big pot) it went around a 2 year old peony Sarah Berhardt. How it stayed alive I do not know? Maybe the roots do not taste as good as Heuchera root!

eugh, what a thing to find! poor fuschia. but shows how hardy the plant is, that it managed to survive several generations of invasion. Lucky it hadn't been in the ground, it would have been hard to check the soil that closely.