On 15 Oct, 23:21, Sacha wrote:
Hollies grow in sun and in shade. Also, I think the problem here is that
the roots have had nowhere to go, so couldn't pick up any nutrients at an
important stage in their development, i.e. adjusting to their new
environment.

There is a fungi disease that is serious if the tree is in damp and
shade and which attack the leaves and then the twigs. If the tree is
kept at the base to light and with plenty of air it will thrive, hence
my question about sun or shade. I am not entirely sure that BlueFlower
has kept the hessian bag on - I feel we can only speculate from her
post. If we also know the age, and possibly the species, it sometimes
can help identifying the problems. I'm thinking about variegated
variety which looses lots of leaves in the autumn like the altaclenris
- there's one in a garden nearby with all the leaves at the base
totally yellow/white. This is not a disease but merely the chlorophyl
not doing it's thing under a very thick canopy. Which reminds me I've
always wanted the 'hedgehog' one - something I'd like to train as a
standard possibly. Since I've cleared up our 20m high holy from it's
dusty horrible base of dead branches etc. the bark underneath is
beautiful - a green that shine even in the deepest, greyest, 'orrible
northern winter's day )