On 19/5/08 10:56, in article
, "Cat(h)"
wrote:

I have two pieris in pots - they were dug out of the garden a couple
of years ago when I realise they needed ericaceous compost and were
basically languishing sadly in my border, looking burned up and going
nowhere. They are now quite healthy and lush, but potbound. I could
of course put them into bigger pots. But within two years, I'd need
bigger pots again - and the pots they're in already are not exactly
tiny. Also, I find that if I go away at all during the summer, they
get terribly thirsty.
Would it be a viable option to dig a very large hole in my border,
much bigger than the current rootball, fill it with ericaceous compost
and plant my pieris therein? Would the ph of the surrounding soil
leach into the ericaceous one over time, and damage my pieris? Or
would I need to put some kind of barrier - heavy polythene, or such -
to avoid this? Has anyone done something like this to include pieris
into an otherwise unsuitable garden?
Your views and advice would be much appreciated.

Cat(h)

I've never done it myself but I believe it's a well established way of
getting 'unsuitable' plants into the border and giving them the right start.
I don't know how well it works with larger plants. If you put in polythene,
I think that will just act as a water trap and drown the plants eventually.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'