On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 18:44:00 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

snip
Right, this is typical of several of the shrubs:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20tips%201.jpg


They look very similar to the first image here, which occurs when the
plants are under stress, which doesn't tell you much other than
they're not happy, which you knew anyway.
http://www.buxus-sempervirens.co.uk/...ves/4567844307

Quite. ;-(

snip

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5772409/Seaweed.jpg

Although the NPK figures aren't visible, and Maxicrop seem reluctant
to advertise what it is in their plain seaweed fertiliser, it's
probably reasonably well balanced so should be OK and no need to get
anything else.

Ok thanks. Daughter found some granulated fertiliser in Poundland and
has tried some on her own stuff. Might keep an eye on how it goes.

http://www.poundland.co.uk/horticare...ertiliser-1-kg

Dilute it as per instructions.

I used a small bottle to measure about 50ml to a 10l watering can. The
instructions I was left with was 'about 2" in the bottom of the
watering can' so what would be the consequences of adding it in such a
concentration do you think?


There are a few 'holes' in the foliage on some of the plants and they
look like this: (full size pic).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...rub%20hole.jpg

There's obviously been some dieback in places. It happens with all
sorts of shrubs from time to time. It might be just one of those
things, or it might be box blight. Either way there's not much you can
do about it.

Ok, thanks Chris. So there isn't any pruning or anything you can do to
stimulate any further growth in that area?

I also did an experiment of the use of the hose versus a 10l watering
can. With one of those telescoping hoses it took about a minute to
fill one can so if I was giving the plants two 20 second blasts then
that was about 7l of water / pot? If I was doing so during the hot
weather, would that be considered 'excessive'?

Difficult to say. 7l seems a lot, but they're big planters. I guess it
depends also on how often you watered them. If it was 7l every day,
then perhaps too much, but 7l once or maybe twice a week, probably OK.

I guess we also come back to the question of how quickly / much water
runs out after watering. Talking to an old gardener friend the other
day (whilst sorting out his technical kit for him) he suggested it
would be ok to drench them (as he does his) *as long* as any of the
surplus water drains out?

It could just be that they didn't like the really hot weather (or you
can at least tell your mate that's what it was!)

Good call! weg

Cheers, T i m