@K67 I can add a photo tomorrow. The border isn’t very wide and what’s there is full of leylandii stumps and roots so I was thinking of some trees or shrubs in large pots that would block key view points from her overlooking windows - this has only been a problem since she destroyed our hedge (that was there when we bought the house) and wouldn’t agree to an application for planning permission for a 2.5m fence. Oh and she built an extension with a window that looks directly into our patio area. We have since built a large pergola around our back door so we can enter the garden without feeling watched and have recently erected a 10 feet wide, 8 feet high summerhouse to block the view of her ground floor windows but there are still some weak spots. Its hard when you are dealing with a selfish and /or inconsiderate person who won’t express herself in words 😑 I just need to keep chipping away at the task until it is done. Thanks for your advice. 😊
@alr252052vlK8gTkF. I have no experience of red robin other than reading about the kind of problems you’ve mentioned. You might be better starting a new thread for advice? Or search other existing threads. Sorry I can’t be of more help. 🙂
Black spot on photinia is not a fungal disease. It's a physiological disorder caused by malnutrition. Feed your photinias better and they will recover, though you have to wait for them to regrow new foliage to replace the spotted leaves. You may also find (@alr252052vlK8gTkF) that you need to transplant to a larger container and use soil-based compost--not ordinary potting compost.
With regard to hardiness, my mother had a fantastic one in the Chilterns, where it gets very cold--conditions not unlike Scotland. So I would have imagined that they wouldn't be too fazed by cold, although the new growth might sometimes be nipped by the frost. They will grow quite fast, so unless you really need your plant on a standard stem from the outset, it is not worth paying top dollar for a topiarised specimen--you'd do better to get a well-developed young shrub and let it get ahead, then if you need to, prune out lower stems yourself. They make extremely beautiful small trees in time, as @didyw says.
Apart from anything else, the standard in your photo is in too small a pot. It will not have a good rootbase and will fail to thrive when planted out. I wouldn't invest in this plant myself. They have some medium-sized plants here for £35: https://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=3247
Thanks @Cambridgerose12 for your great advice. I would have repotted that specimen but it would have been silly to buy it without having a good knowledge of the plant beforehand. I shall look at your link and have a go myself. 😊
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I have no experience of red robin other than reading about the kind of problems you’ve mentioned. You might be better starting a new thread for advice? Or search other existing threads. Sorry I can’t be of more help. 🙂
With regard to hardiness, my mother had a fantastic one in the Chilterns, where it gets very cold--conditions not unlike Scotland. So I would have imagined that they wouldn't be too fazed by cold, although the new growth might sometimes be nipped by the frost. They will grow quite fast, so unless you really need your plant on a standard stem from the outset, it is not worth paying top dollar for a topiarised specimen--you'd do better to get a well-developed young shrub and let it get ahead, then if you need to, prune out lower stems yourself. They make extremely beautiful small trees in time, as @didyw says.
Apart from anything else, the standard in your photo is in too small a pot. It will not have a good rootbase and will fail to thrive when planted out. I wouldn't invest in this plant myself. They have some medium-sized plants here for £35: https://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=3247