In article ,
"Casper" wrote:

I'm talking Ceratopetalum gummiferum here

I have put some pics online
http://www.innerweb.com.au/ourgarden...tmasbushes.htm but to describe
the problem, we have 5 in a row. They start out ok on the left, then
deteriorate moving toward the right. I can't work out any difference in
soil, sun or drainage characteristics between the rhs and lhs. We did a ph
test - pretty uniform, the soil on the happier plants showed the same
slightly acid reading as the soil on the sad plants, so we added some lime -
that was about 6 weeks ago.

We keep them well seesol'd and blood and boned, also a little osmocote 'for
natives'.

I suspect you are over-fertilising them. You use blood and bone or Osmocote
(not AND) only once a year; dunno about Seasol. Have you been doing more than
that? From now on, just water them once a week or so to leach out some of
those excess nutrients.

I cannot fathom why you added lime given that the happier and sadder plants
had the same acidity anyway. NSW soils are acidic, as are Australian soils
generally. Christmas bush will tolerate clay but is originally from poor,
sandy, rocky soils, so it doesn't need a lot of feeding. The other
possibility is that they are getting too much water, I suppose -- they don't
like wet feet.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/