Jake Nospam@invalid wrote in
:

On 17 Nov 2011 16:45:10 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:

Sacha wrote in
:

Can't improve on that! I'd put it back into its last pot, in fresh
compost, as Jake suggests, and water sparingly now that winter is
here.
If you do have to water, it's better to do so in the morning,
rather
than having pots stand about wet, all through the night. But
definitely, do ensure good drainage. Yours is an example of why
plants get potted on gradually, something often asked on here. Too
much wet compost 'drowns' them.



Thanks to you both. This is educational for me as I'm no gardening
expert. I took your advice and repotted back to the previous pot. I
used some compost mixed 50/50 with some sand and gravel which was
surplus from a concretete-making project.

When I removed the shrups from the large planters, the roots didn't
seem at all waterlogged. They looked like my idea of optimally moist.
I couldn't squeese any water out of the compost using my fingers.
Anyway, there was a period of a couple of weeks when they could have
been waterlogged. After I copiously watered them, it did rain off and
on, for about a week. I wonder if that was the cause.

I did not have any gravel or stones in the bottom of the pot. Perhaps
I should have included them to improve drainage.

The older (smaller) pots have castellations on the bottom, to prevent
the 'standing in water' issue that you mentioned. I hope this does
the trick. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Thanks again,

Al

That you got them back into their previous pots says a lot.
Grisselina's a strong plant but it will help if you can keep the pots
out of freeze-up thru the winter. Unheated greenhouse/conservatory if
you have one; otherwise a few layers of bubble-wrap around the pots.

I will take your bubble-wrap advice, as I don't have a greenhouse, and
these potted shrubs perform a vital role of stopping my french windows
from flying open too far!


Check them in about March and if you see roots poking through the
bottom of the pots or, when teasing the rootball out of the pots you
see loads of roots wrapped around the outside, repot them up into the
next size of pot, or ground-plant, using as close to the same mix of
compost as now (though forget the sand - it won't help that much with
a JI-based compost). Tease any circular roots out a bit first.

The secret in potting on is to make the immediate surround of the
rootball as close to the existing as possible

Thanks for the tips. I actually re-used the same compost when I
repostted, so hopefully the added sand and gravel won't upset the plant
too much.

Al