"Spider" wrote in message ...
I'm guessing that the first shrub is an acer. Acers are plants of light
woodland and do not appreciate being exposed to full sun (or wind) all year
round, especially whilst suffering drought.

First of all, thankyou everyone for the replies.

The name "Acer" does ring a bell, so you're probably right.

My back garden faces West and the right hand side of the garden (northerly)
is shady in the morning, but gets full sun for most of the afternoon.

As I'm going to have to dig it up anyway, what I think I'll do is move it to
the other side of the garden (southerly), which is shady for most of the day
(which is the same side as my rather bad looking rose, which I also posted
about the other day). But I'll wait till it goes dormant first (as winter is
round the corner, that shouldn't be too long).

The second shrub is probably a Spiraea, but it's not easy to see.
It can cope with more sunshine, but still needs to be kept well watered.
It looks as if it may be planted next to a drain cover (or perhaps a large
slab of slate) on the left hand side, and clearly next to wheelie bins on
the right. Both these will stop the shrub receiving natural rain fall.

The name Spirea doesn't ring a bell. But to answer your question, that's a
piece of slate just to the left.

I'll probably move this bush to the shadier side of the garden too while I'm
at it. I was looking for some other plants to put down the left, so that
will solve that problem then!

Whatever else you do, you need to give these shrubs a good, solid
drenching. Even if it rains, don't rely on that reaching the roots.
Certainly cut out all the dead wood to tidy the plants up *and* to stop
them dying back further, hopefully.

Well it chucked it down with rain yesterday and it looks like rain again
tomorrow, BUT if it doesn't, I'll get the hose out!

Thanks again to everyone for the replies. As I said in my earlier post about
my rose, I have a complete "brown thumb" when it comes to gardening and try
to do as little of it as possible. But I shall try and get my hands a little
bit more dirty out back in the future...


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Best Wishes
Simon Taylor