"Badbark" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have just tried my first bit of gardening and I think I've managed
to kill 6 pyracantha shrubs within a week. I have recently moved house
and have my first ever garden. For a bit of protection I have planted
6 orange glow pyracantha but they all appear to be dying. They were
all about 2 years old with 2-4 branches each about 30cms high. The
shrubs are in the sun most of the day. I only planted them a week ago
but within days I noticed leaves yellowing and starting to fall off. A
few are worse than others. I've done a bit of research and found that
I have made plenty of mistakes

I dug the holes about twice the size of the roots. I put a layer of
compost down in the hole but then made my first mistake. I didn't
untangle the roots in anyway after taking it out of the pot. I set
them pot shaped on top of the compost. The soil that I removed was
extremely stoney so I ended up putting between 40%-80% multi purpose
compost back into each hole mixed with the soil. I presume that this
may be too much and I should have used topsoil? I put some wood chip
mulch down around the base of plants to keep the moisture in and there
has been plenty of rain in the last week.


Food is the last thing they need. They will have plenty from the
multipurpose compost.
The main thing is to make sure they are well watered. It has been very dry.
If there has been no rain, they will nee LOTS of water (given them what
looks like lots except multiply that by 4).

I HATE Pyracantha anyway (they are bleedin orrible to prune/trim; it is
covered in huge sharp spikes).
Every house I have lived in I have done the reverse to you (kill em off one
by one).

Des


I didn't add any plant food initially until I noticed the leaves
yellowing and falling off. After I noticed how yellow they were
getting I went and got some miracle grow which I added 6 days after
planting (yesterday). Every plant has lost many (10%-30%) leaves and
about 80% of the surviving leaves have a slight yellowing. Is there
any hope for these? Is there anything I can do at this stage? Thanks
for any help.

Badbark.