On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:36:06 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from Paul Corfield contains these words:

I have a number of perennial plants that have been ravaged by the S&S
brigade. The plants are in the borders and I assume their roots are
working away but there is no obvious green activity up top.

Has there *ever*been any sign of green in the past? if not, they are
probably dead (not necessarily due to S and S)

There was plenty of life in them when I bought them from the garden
centre.

I don't
really want to lose these plants but I am at the bottom of my gardening
learning curve and I'd like to know the most sensible way to try to
revive these plants. The options I can think of are :-

a) leave them where they are but feed them intensively and protect
from S&S attack and hope they recover.
b) dig them up, repot them, protect them from S&S attack and
provide due care and sustenance.
c) leave where they are, don't do anything special and hope they
recover next spring after winter dormancy. Obviously S&S Protection will
be required.

Leave the plants where they are. Digging them up would probably kill
them off in their weak state.

OK.

Never feed plants that are unwell or under stress. It's a waste of
feed, and puts the plant under worse stress. Feed birds instead;
attracting them to your garden will help keep slugs and snails down.

There is a reasonable bird population in the area with lots of garden
visitors.

Go out on a few damp evenings and capture as many slugs and snails as
possible.

I did some of this last week.

Place barrier-trails on soil around the plants, of material that
slugs and snails don't like to cross. This could be wood ash, sand,
crushed dead bracken.

I have done some of this for some other plants. I need to be
comprehensive in my approach.
--
Paul C