On 24/05/2014 07:50, Peter James wrote:
I have a one year old Ceanothus that produces a blue flower that is
planted in totally the wrong place faceing East rather, than as the book
says, a southerly aspect.. It's where it gets full exposure and is
fully into the wind, and it doesn't like it.
It got frost burnt and wind burnt in the winter, and has reacted by
producing a mass of plain green leaves instead of the variegated leaves
on the rest of the plant.

The RHS site said it hates being moved, so I think it's stuck where it
is, but can I cut off the plain green leaves without doing any further
damage to the bush. There are quite a lot of them including one spur
that is totally green.

I am in North Cornwall if that should make any difference.

Peter




Normally, I would always advise cutting out the plain green shoots at
source in order to maintain the less vigorous variegated growth since,
presumably, that is why it was bought. However, in this case, I would
be inclined to let the stronger green growth prevail. Although I like
many variegated plants, I've never been able to admire variegated
Ceanothus (sorry) but, rather more importantly than my personal opinion,
I think the green form may stand up to your weather conditions better. I
also suspect that your plant agrees with me, since it produced green
leaves to help it cope!;~). I also think it's worth giving it a high
potash feed to help harden off the foliage. Certainly don't give it any
nitrogenous feed which will encourage soft growth.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay