Hi there

A very novice gardener here.

We recently redid our garden and I salvaged some lovely mature box to
plant in pots. I did a really quick job in December, putting them in
some cheap plastic pots with a bit of peat-free compost. This was a
*really* quick job done in the middle of the night. I expected them to
die as the pots were small and they fell over a couple of times, but
they survived the winter in good health.

I then transferred two of them to some nice zinc tapered planters from
Homebase. These were much bigger. I put in some more peat-free compost
and gave them a fairly savage pruning.

For about 4 weeks they looked beautiful.

Let's just say that now they are looking awful. I water them pretty
often, probably twice a week. I hadn't realised just how badly they
were doing till I compared them to the third box which I trimmed but
left in its plastic pot. The one in the plastic pot is green and
healthy. The two which I have transferred are brown, slightly
dessicated and look very unwell.

My great gardening triumph is turning to disaster before my eyes.

Any thoughts?

My first thought is that the metal planters are heating up the roots
so they dry out. I know it's hot at the moment, but not that hot
surely? The box are in part sun part shade. Probably in sun 50% of the
day. Should I bin the zinc planters?

I also wonder whether it is worth standing the planters in a dish to
keep them wetter rather than letting excess water drain out?

I added some top soil to raise the level of the earth in the container
and to hopefully retain more moisture. Too soon to say if that has
helped.

Should I feed them?

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Daniel