Plant Rescue

Sometimes plants find it difficult adapting to a spot in the garden. Or maybe your garden design has changed and some plants just don’t fit in anymore. Or it could be that the invasive roots of a large tree are making life difficult. Rather than discarding those plants, recycling is the way to go.

When you dig up plants it’s always difficult to lift all the roots. As a result, most plants, like these Liriope become unbalanced. What I mean by that is, there is too much top growth for the present roots to support. That’s easily fixed.

Cutting back the top growth by at least two thirds puts the balance in favour of the roots.
Bird of Paradise can be one of the hardest plants to transplant as their long fleshy root system is both heavy and difficult to dig around. Once lifted, apart from any damaged leaves, these don’t need trimming.

Rescued plants are best potted up to nurse them back to health. You can use old pots, or if you have selected a particular specimen, then pop those into a something special.

Planting is straightforward. Use a premium grade potting mix, you can always tell that by the name and the 5 ticks. If you want your plants to grow, then the extra fertilizer, will produce better growth.

Water in with a plant tonic to stimulate roots and a light dose of organic fertilizer won’t go astray either.

Depending on the plant, choose a spot in the yard that suits, keep up regular watering and feeds and it will be back big and strong and healthy in no time.

The benefit of saving plants is you can use them around the garden when you need them and that’s a money saver. So before you heave that ratty old plant into to the compost or green waste bin, consider giving it another chance in your yard or someone else’s.