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Soil pH

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  • IanC63 says:

    If your soil is alkaline..your stuck with it. But that's no bad thing is it?

    See original post

     

    As I said I’ve been planting from scratch and one thing I’ve noticed is that there is a current fashion for acid loving plants. Acer are inescapable, same with rhododendron and azalea, with camellia and magnolia to a lesser extent.  I was at Dobbies the other day, they are slowly getting new stock in at the moment, and it was acid acid acid.  It was like that last year as well, I’m assuming they will switch over to alkaline next year and we will start seeing this question in reverse. 

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    Earthquakes are on a logarithmic scale as well.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505

    Then there's the area under a graph - what's that for!

    We had this book full of numbers. There were words on top of the page like sine cosine logarithm. If you picked the right number (I did this at random) , you got the right answer. I never did.  Nobody ever explained what the purpose was.

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Jimmmy2Jimmmy2 Posts: 13

    Our soil here in Gloucestershire is alkaline, no heather's or rhododendrons or acid loving plants grow or flourish here!

    I have two compost bins in my rear garden and two in my allotment, the (tested) compost which they makes is acidic in them all!

    Once I forgot and left a steel spade sticking in one for some days, when I remembered and removed it it was covered in rust, though it came back with a little TLC and being coated in oil!

    Stable manure has the same affect if you leave an ordinary spade in it!

    Cheers!

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505

    Sounds as if you stand still too long, your wellies'll meltimage

    Last edited: 20 January 2018 16:25:14

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    Jimmmy2 says:

    Our soil here in Gloucestershire is alkaline, no heather's or rhododendrons or acid loving plants grow or flourish here!

    See original post

    Have you been to Westonbirt? Fabulous Rhodos image. Rhododendrons are a lot less particular than their reputation suggests - given the right dappled shade conditions and plenty of leaf mould, they'll tolerate some lime.

    Azaleas are fussier but they even have some of those. I assume they grow in almost pure leaf mould, built up in a deep layer over the couple of centuries that the arboretum has been there.

    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • Obviously, I got my answer slightly wrong and clay can be on any level of the ph table 

    Apologies to the leader post for having a brain dead moment??

  • PurplerainPurplerain Posts: 1,053

    i have Pink Hydrangeas on the sunny side of the garden and Pink Hydrangeas on the other shady side with Heathers, Ferns and Azaleas growing well. The one thing I notice is that Pieris hates the sunny side and will be moved closer to the Azalea side in Spring. I think they are like cats. One week they like Whiskas, and the next they like Felix ?

    SW Scotland
  • Hi 

    Pieris do not like strong morning sun as it tends to iscorch the folliage and flower when in bloom. Part shade in a good aspect for them 

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