Generally, I don't do anything to the ones up the side of the garden. They
seem to bud, but all that happens is no flower, but looking at the plant,
you would think that it had flowered, and all the petals had fallen off.
Just a hard green nobbly thing appears. It's unlikely they dry out in the
summer, in Ireland.. an no, potash has never been used. I'll try the potash
now. Thanks for the advice, all.
"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:52:02 +0100, "derek"
wrote:

Hello,

I'm new to this.. Iv'e inherited a garden with these bushes, but they
never
flower! 6 years now, and maybe these were planted 7 years ago. No hint
of
a flower on any of them. Is this normal? If now, what can I do? They've
never been fed or fertilized - nothing except cut back.
Can anyone point me in the right direction before I pull them up?!!!!

Tks

Nichollette

Cut back? When? If you do it annually at the wrong time (like in the
autumn) you could be cutting off the embryonic flower buds.

But somehow I doubt it. I have no good answer. Do you keep them
watered in dry summers? They set their buds in late summer/early
autumn ready for next spring. If they get dry at this time the buds
can abort. Do you mulch the roots to help retain moisture? Leafmould,
pine needles or peat are all OK. If you give a potash feed about now
it should encourage flower bud set.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net