I have a number of perennial plants that have been ravaged by the S&S
brigade. The plants are in the borders and I assume their roots are
working away but there is no obvious green activity up top. I don't
really want to lose these plants but I am at the bottom of my gardening
learning curve and I'd like to know the most sensible way to try to
revive these plants. The options I can think of are :-

a) leave them where they are but feed them intensively and protect
from S&S attack and hope they recover.
b) dig them up, repot them, protect them from S&S attack and
provide due care and sustenance.
c) leave where they are, don't do anything special and hope they
recover next spring after winter dormancy. Obviously S&S Protection will
be required.

Any thoughts or comments - sorry for being a bit dim.
--
Paul C

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:36:06 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from Paul Corfield contains these words:

I have a number of perennial plants that have been ravaged by the S&S
brigade. The plants are in the borders and I assume their roots are
working away but there is no obvious green activity up top.

Has there *ever*been any sign of green in the past? if not, they are
probably dead (not necessarily due to S and S)

There was plenty of life in them when I bought them from the garden
centre.

I don't
really want to lose these plants but I am at the bottom of my gardening
learning curve and I'd like to know the most sensible way to try to
revive these plants. The options I can think of are :-

a) leave them where they are but feed them intensively and protect
from S&S attack and hope they recover.
b) dig them up, repot them, protect them from S&S attack and
provide due care and sustenance.
c) leave where they are, don't do anything special and hope they
recover next spring after winter dormancy. Obviously S&S Protection will
be required.

Leave the plants where they are. Digging them up would probably kill
them off in their weak state.

OK.

Never feed plants that are unwell or under stress. It's a waste of
feed, and puts the plant under worse stress. Feed birds instead;
attracting them to your garden will help keep slugs and snails down.

There is a reasonable bird population in the area with lots of garden
visitors.

Go out on a few damp evenings and capture as many slugs and snails as
possible.

I did some of this last week.

Place barrier-trails on soil around the plants, of material that
slugs and snails don't like to cross. This could be wood ash, sand,
crushed dead bracken.

I have done some of this for some other plants. I need to be
comprehensive in my approach.
--
Paul C

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
I have a number of perennial plants that have been ravaged by the S&S
brigade. The plants are in the borders and I assume their roots are
working away but there is no obvious green activity up top. I don't
really want to lose these plants but I am at the bottom of my gardening
learning curve and I'd like to know the most sensible way to try to
revive these plants. The options I can think of are :-

a) leave them where they are but feed them intensively and protect
from S&S attack and hope they recover.
b) dig them up, repot them, protect them from S&S attack and
provide due care and sustenance.
c) leave where they are, don't do anything special and hope they
recover next spring after winter dormancy. Obviously S&S Protection will
be required.

Any thoughts or comments - sorry for being a bit dim.

When you say "no obvious green activity up top" do you mean there is a green
stem but no obvious buds, or that there isn't any stem showing?

If all the stem and buds have gone there may well be nothing left for the
plant to generate new growth above ground.

I think that this kind of damage during the growing season could be the end
of them; it is a different situation from the planned die back of some
perennials over winter. Even then, most plants need some stem as the
starting point for next year's growth.

It would help to know what kind of plants we are speculating about :-)

I have some Nicotiana which are coming back from very little, but the ones
that are recovering did have at least some green stem left above soil level.

Cheers

Dave R