Choisya Ternata
Hi, I am a transplant from NYC and have lived with my family here in Melbourne for 5 years. So it is safe to say that I am a newbie gardener! I recently inherited a beautiful but sort of over grown garden. I have been tirelessly researching forums like this and learning heaps. My wife lovingly calls it "plant-porn". In an effort to consolidate some plants, I transplanted some Mexican orange blossom to a sunnier patch on the side of the house. I painstakingly dug up as much of the root ball as possible and moved it to it"s new home with a manure/soil mix and a bit of slow release and watered in. I will have to admit, it was about to bloom so I may have lost this seasons flowers, but I am ok with that as there are plenty more plants. My issue is the leaves seem to have gone a bit limp, not as bad as a Hydrangea in high summer but definitely not perky. I will water in again today with seasol, but any further advice in saving my C. Ternata would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Chris
Hello Chris, I hope you are enjoying living in Australia. This is what I do when transplanting. Dig a hole twice as wide and twice as deep (even deeper is better) as the root ball and fill it up with water and let it drain away. Do this three times. Remember one of the laws of physics - everything will try to get to an equilibrium state, so the surrounding dry soil will draw the moisture from the hole. If the water takes a long time to drain, then more than likely you have clay soil. If this is the case then dig in some gypsum or dolomite mixed with garden loam and compost before planting. NEVER, NEVER put fertilizers into the hole. After about 6 weeks you can mix some cow manure with some blood & bone and place it on top of the soil and give the plant a good drink. All you can do now is to give the plant a good watering virtually everyday and cross your fingers that it survives. Diluted Seasol once a week will also help. I hope I have been of some help. Good luck. Barbara.