Plants not thriving in new home
Hi - we moved all our plants in their containers and pots, from our former patio garden, to our new home last autumn. They didn't all survive the horrendous flooding in February - huge mahonia and diablo both drowned. The rest - honeysuckles, hardy fuchsias, common herbs, Japanese maple, bay - have hardly grown at all. I bought new fuchsias, big begonias and busy lizzies a couple of months ago and they have hardly grown at all. The fuchsia and begonia flowers are not lasting but dying off while half-bloomed.
My buddleia cuttings which usually grow like crazy, have withered. Could it be the mains water in the new place? We used to be Thames Water and are now Affinity. We humans hate the taste and smell (like swimming pool water) so we have had a filter tap fitted for our drinking water. The lilies are very happy - blooming and beautifully scented and for once not massacred by the slugs and snails which live here in abundance. Any suggestions? Thanks
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Chlorine is a poison in quantity, have you tried using rain water instead. You can get butts which attach to down pipes to collect for watering.
Have you replaced some of the compost in your pots or are you plants pot bound, and what are your new neighbour's experiences like. Were your pots flooded during winter? They may be suffering from pollution. Could be a variety of reasons, but really for a definitive answer more information or ruling out of causes is required.
Thanks Dave. Just realised I was not making myself clear just now. Our house and garden did not get flooded - but the pots all got loads of rain for weeks on end. The two big pots got waterlogged and the mahonia and diablo died. I've been watering with a hose for about 6 weeks. We don't have a butt yet - it's on our "to do" list once we get started on the actual garden. I did repot the smaller plants, and new plantings in generous-size pots have not thrived as much as I think they would have done at our old place. I'm used to begonias getting very big, quickly, and having a long flowering period - into late autumn. Both gardens face south west. I have used a sprinkling of Vitax Growmore in the past week - on everything - hoping it will perk things up.
Get yourself a waterbutt, it will fill up surprisingly quickly. Just make sure you cover it closely at all times so the water stays good and insect-free.
"I doubt it is the water as you drink it, don't you?" There speaks the voice of complacency and ignorance. It may not be just chlorine.....Take a sample of your water to a reputable independent lab (there must be some in England, there are here in Brazil) and get it fully analysed. Go for the full works, bacteria, microorganisms, chemicals, acidity the lot. You will only ever do it once! Most people haven't the faintest idea what they are drinking, let alone feeding to their plants. I am very lucky. I can still drink ground water drawn from a well and a local lake which is of mineral water standard and so can the garden when it isn't raining...! There must be few places in England where this is still possible. I would not dream of using tap water for anything except washing the car.
Inglezinho
About 15 years ago there was a minor scandal here in Britain when the Coca-Cola company decided to go into the bottled water business. It turned out that they were taking their water from the taps in their factory and carbonising it, the brand rapidly went out of business. This led to scientists checking out bottled waters and tap waters who discovered may bottled waters had been in the bottle so long they were not as fresh as tap water. Most UK tap water is safe from bacterial contamination partly due to use of chlorine and effective filtration. Chemical contamination is more of a concern in some parts [i.e. aluminium in Cornwall a few years ago] nitrates from fertilizers in agricultural areas, but water in plastic bottles gets contaminated by different chemicals from the plastic.
Nibbletts if there's a problem with your tap water (which I doubt to be honest) your neighbours will know. There must be a lot of gardeners in the same water district. Ask them
In the sticks near Peterborough
I would have no hesitation in drinking any water in the UK whether from tap, well or spring. Maybe in Brazil the situation is different.
water quality wont be the problem. Your water company makes results available and they are independently validated.
Nibblets, having re read your reply to my original question I have found you have re potted the smaller pots into generous sized pots. Have you over potted them? When re potting it's recommended that you re pot into the next size up, not several sizes up. Re potting into much larger pots means the plants take longer to re establish and suffer stress as a result. This added to the visual effect may be your problem. I'd stuff some late summer bedding in them to fill them out for this year.
I did pot a couple into bigger-than-next-size pots - so that could be why the fuchsia's dropping its flowers. The begonias are from the garden centre and quite disappointing all round. The small ones are staying very small. The potting medium is the usual stuff from the garden centre - plus topsoil for the shrubby items. The roses we inherited in the borders all look very unpleasant - I've not bothered with roses before so maybe they have a disease. I think I'll have to write off this year and get to grips with it from the autumn so next year's better. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, folks! We are drinking the tap water, filtered. Even if it's perfectly potable, we don't like the taste direct from the mains - it makes the tea ghastly.