chalcopyrite: A cluster of white cymbidium orchids (flowers: white orchids)
chalcopyrite ([personal profile] chalcopyrite) wrote in [community profile] gardening 2011-08-02 06:16 pm (UTC)

Don't worry about a few half-dead leaves; you can take them off in the spring, if they're still clinging on after the winter.

Plant feeding: I realised wait, it's August already (and how did that happen???), so you don't want to feed them now -- you don't want plants to have tender new growth going in to the winter, and a slow-release feed would be wasted in winter while the plant is dormant.

So! A thing you could do first, as [personal profile] feuer_flammenlos said, is check what the soil is like under those stones. If it's grey, hard, sandy, rocky -- the honeysuckle would probably benefit from being taken out of the pot, having as much of the old soil as (easily) possible removed/shaken gently out of the roots, and being re-planted in new compost. That is IF it is easy enough to wrangle the plant. If not, you can dig out the top couple inches of soil (as much as you can without taking the plant out of the pot, and without damaging roots too much), and replacing those with new compost. Compost as sold has plant food in it; that lasts about 6 months or so.

Come spring, when things start growing again, you can add some slow-release plant food to the top layer of soil. J. Arthur Bower is a good reliable brand, or really any would do; what you want is a slow-release fertiliser for containers or pots (it will have less nitrogen; you don't want plants in pots to be growing vigorously). A garden centre or a home-improvement store like B&Q ought to be able to help you. It doesn't take much, and you just sort of mix it a little into the top of the soil.

The big problem for container plants is water; I don't know if you've been having the dry weather we've been getting, but if there isn't a good soaking rain, plants need more water than you'd ever think. One way to make sure the roots get water, rather than it just running off the top, is to take a 2l water/soda bottle, cut the bottom off and make some slits around the top, then (with the cap on) bury it maybe halfway in the pot, open end up. Fill that with water, and it'll leach out slowly, down where the roots can get it.

One more thing is, if you can get a peep at the bottom of the container and there are lots of roots coming out the bottom drainage holes, the plant is potbound and needs a larger pot. Alas, because the big pots start getting pricey.

I hope these do well for you! Don't beat yourself up if there are some setbacks!

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