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How to get better growth (and what is it)
fromtheshires
Posts: 72
in Plants
Hey all
i have a plant that has been against a wall for the best part of 3 years.
i have a plant that has been against a wall for the best part of 3 years.
Now my garden is useable i want to have it in a prominent position in the garden. The issue is its grown out on one side but bare at the back.
How do I get even growth / promote growing at the back of the plant. I imagine I need to chop some of it off to allow it to grow at the back?
my next question is what is this plant as im a gardening novice and this is the only thing ive ever managed to keep alive!
How do I get even growth / promote growing at the back of the plant. I imagine I need to chop some of it off to allow it to grow at the back?
my next question is what is this plant as im a gardening novice and this is the only thing ive ever managed to keep alive!
0
Posts
A variegated pittosporum
Keep turning the pot so it gets light to the bare patches - they'll soon sprout.
You can trim them back - I hacked mine back very hard a few years ago and it soon grew back
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks for identifying it as i was drawing blanks when googling the description of the leaf....
If it will happily grow without me needing to do anything i will leave it to sort itself out naturally and just trim the shape up a little bit
Turn the pot every week or two during the growing season and it will soon fill out and look even all round.
Yours also wants to grow into a big shrub too, so check it's not getting rootbound in the spring.
It's also a good idea at this time of year to raise the pot off the ground slightly using pot-feet (I just find 4 small stones and put them under the pot) otherwise the pot can't drain properly after heavy rain which will rot the roots
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Each year, you'd need to replace some of that soil anyway to keep a reasonable level of nutrients in there, and it needs to be a soil based medium to grow in, not just compost.
Some slow release food at the same time will help it too. Blood Fish and Bone is ideal, or even a liquid seaweed every so often during the growing season. You don't want a feed for flowering plants.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
), it would be a shame to have to prune it down a lot, just to keep it in a pot. Our largest (Pittosporum Garnettii) is about 7 foot high, a small tree, which we have pruned into shape.
We have quite a few in pots, which we keep trimmed into formal shapes. The variety below is Pittosporum Green Star.
It's too late in the year to prune now, as frosts are already occurring in some parts of the country. On certain varieties, especially with older ones, they can look quite bare for ages if you prune them too hard, but they will eventually grow back as the others says.