I planted several pachysandra more than six years ago in a light
wooded area (large pine, hickory, beech, dogwood, redbud, tulip
popular trees). The ground is moist and sloped in zone 7. I've
mulched these every year with compost and occasionally fed them an
acid fertilizer. They are still the same size as six years ago and
they look healthy. We have long hot summers.

In article , wrote:

I planted several pachysandra more than six years ago in a light
wooded area (large pine, hickory, beech, dogwood, redbud, tulip
popular trees). The ground is moist and sloped in zone 7. I've
mulched these every year with compost and occasionally fed them an
acid fertilizer. They are still the same size as six years ago and
they look healthy. We have long hot summers.

I've seen pachysandra described as "rapid spreading" in the ad-hype, but
in reality they tend to be very slow to get started in their spread
because they have to stretch out a lot of thick white underground runners
first. Once established they can get so thick they have to be thinned down
or they hurt themselves. Usually three or four years is what it takes, by
which time they'll have those thick white shoots everywhere & springing up
with increasing lushness. Since yours didn't do that, clearly something is
not optimal for them. If they dry out periodically that would certainly
stunt them. Possibly what you call "long hot summers" is enough to stunt
them even if kept moist, as they're purely temperate in their preference,
tolerating cold better than heat. Light surface waterings do them no good,
they need deep early morning soaking. Also if they are surrounded by
well-lit space, they won't spread out of the shade, of if they're getting
a whole lot of indirect or dappled sunlight both morning & afternoon, it
just may never have really been shade enough to suit them.

As they do hate heat, & they'd only need to dry out once or twice all
summer to pretty much shrivel up the runners that would otherwise produce
spreading growth, I suspect your "long hot summers" is what limits them.
But here are some other things to ponder as possibilities:

Sometimes they can be induced to produce more side-shoots by pruning them
down late in winter, or before they waste energy on blooms, & then just
let them start over.

Despite that they prefer neutral to acidic soils, pachysandra do like a
bit of lime too (a winter topcoating of well cooked compost will keep the
soil from becoming alkaline even with a touch of lime). They prefer bone
meal more than they like an evergreen or rhody fertilizer. A nitrogen
fertilizer effects mainly the leaves -- very nice leaves, but not so
helpful encouraging those side-shoots which are essential if it's to start
spreading.

The better time to fertilize is autumn, so that they will produce
underground shoots in fall & winter.

If burrowing animals are regularly breaking the underground runners, or
you go in there & break up & loosen the soil yourself, busting up the
shoots can work like a bonzai technique to keep the pachysandra from
spreading out, though the parent plant remains fine.

You could just go in there with a bunch more pachysandra & fill it out.
Add some of the newer "variegated" pachysandra for instance, just to spice
it all up & thicken it up. Or fill in amidst the pachysandra with one of
the big-leafed kinds of Asarum wild gingers, they should be very
compatible.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

Thanks paghat! I sorta figured the pachysandra does not like the
weeks and weeks of 90-degree summers we get. Some of the plants were
taken from my mother's home (in Cleveland Ohio) where they have grown
like weeds and do not seem to mind the long cold winters-- my mother
never fertilized them nor cared for them much. In the same area (with
more light) I'm trying to grow ivy with limited success. The deer
continuously eat the ivy but apparently don't like the taste of
pachysandra. If I see the pach blooming I'll pinch off the buds
(thanks for that tip). Someone at the nursery suggested moving one
pach to a shade garden where it will have more light and moisture.
Where the pachs are now growing, there is wild vinca, may pops, wild
ferns, honey suckle (but they usually don't bloom), saplings that
usually die from not enough light, and fungi. The ground area gets
dappled sun in the winter, and no sun in the summer.

I've looked all over for wild ginger--that plant "fits" into this
environment too. If anyone knows where I could purchase wild ginger
in the Knoxville, TN area please let me know.

On Sat, 08 Mar 2003 21:36:10 -0700,
(paghat) wrote:

In article , wrote:

I planted several pachysandra more than six years ago in a light
wooded area (large pine, hickory, beech, dogwood, redbud, tulip
popular trees). The ground is moist and sloped in zone 7. I've
mulched these every year with compost and occasionally fed them an
acid fertilizer. They are still the same size as six years ago and
they look healthy. We have long hot summers.

I've seen pachysandra described as "rapid spreading" in the ad-hype, but
in reality they tend to be very slow to get started in their spread
because they have to stretch out a lot of thick white underground runners
first. Once established they can get so thick they have to be thinned down
or they hurt themselves. Usually three or four years is what it takes, by
which time they'll have those thick white shoots everywhere & springing up
with increasing lushness. Since yours didn't do that, clearly something is
not optimal for them. If they dry out periodically that would certainly
stunt them. Possibly what you call "long hot summers" is enough to stunt
them even if kept moist, as they're purely temperate in their preference,
tolerating cold better than heat. Light surface waterings do them no good,
they need deep early morning soaking. Also if they are surrounded by
well-lit space, they won't spread out of the shade, of if they're getting
a whole lot of indirect or dappled sunlight both morning & afternoon, it
just may never have really been shade enough to suit them.

As they do hate heat, & they'd only need to dry out once or twice all
summer to pretty much shrivel up the runners that would otherwise produce
spreading growth, I suspect your "long hot summers" is what limits them.
But here are some other things to ponder as possibilities:

Sometimes they can be induced to produce more side-shoots by pruning them
down late in winter, or before they waste energy on blooms, & then just
let them start over.

Despite that they prefer neutral to acidic soils, pachysandra do like a
bit of lime too (a winter topcoating of well cooked compost will keep the
soil from becoming alkaline even with a touch of lime). They prefer bone
meal more than they like an evergreen or rhody fertilizer. A nitrogen
fertilizer effects mainly the leaves -- very nice leaves, but not so
helpful encouraging those side-shoots which are essential if it's to start
spreading.

The better time to fertilize is autumn, so that they will produce
underground shoots in fall & winter.

If burrowing animals are regularly breaking the underground runners, or
you go in there & break up & loosen the soil yourself, busting up the
shoots can work like a bonzai technique to keep the pachysandra from
spreading out, though the parent plant remains fine.

You could just go in there with a bunch more pachysandra & fill it out.
Add some of the newer "variegated" pachysandra for instance, just to spice
it all up & thicken it up. Or fill in amidst the pachysandra with one of
the big-leafed kinds of Asarum wild gingers, they should be very
compatible.

-paghat the ratgirl