On 05/09/2010 16:18, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-05 12:01:27 +0100, stuart noble
said:

On 05/09/2010 11:39, Charlie Pridham wrote:
In ,
says...
After 4 years against a north facing fence, this thing is now 6 feet
high, but shows no signs of flowering. Although the plant looks
generally vigorous, the leaves don't look too healthy.

http://i55.tinypic.com/141jl0.jpg

The soil is a little on the stony side and it doesn't get a lot of
direct sunlight, but the mopheads grow well in the same location.
Any advice appreciated.

6' is still a baby, they generally take 6-10 years to start flowering
and
north facing will take longer.

Tatty leaves after winter is normal but tatty leaves now indicates
either
its much too dry or suffering from wind exposure which it doesn't like
very much

If the tatty leaves appear to be notched its vine weevil damage

Thanks. I'll give it another 5 years then...:-)

I had one planted in a low wall and it never did well. I think it just
drained and dried out too quickly so perhaps you need to give yours huge
amounts of water daily, especially if it's in a rain shadow.

I think you're probably right. Perhaps I'll try and get something more
absorbent round the roots, and water it more often.