Red Robins

lastbigspender

Hi

Can anyone advise how to bring these 2 red Robins back to life?

I have been watering them daily and fed them fish blood, bones.

They are supposed to be shaped as bay trees but have lost a lot of leaves.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

subjecttocontract

I don't know the answer but if they were mine I think I might just start again with new p!ants.

lastbigspender

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980645#Comment_81980645

they are sprouting new leaves at the min but not really filling out.

Frost hit them couple of years ago and never came back right again

twopenny

I'm guessing they are in pots. Have you given them a new, bigger pot with fresh compost?

They are huge for a potted plant.

But I've had a similar problem with my shaped bay tree. Despite watering and feeding during the drought the tough leaves couldn't cope. It produces small new leaves but they don't grow well.. it needs cutting back and going into the ground really.

fatbelly

They are tough old plants but ultimately won't like having roots restricted. I have one, in poor soil, never water or feed it. It grows so vigorously that I have to trim it annually to stop it overhanging a public footpath and getting over 10 feet tall!

lastbigspender

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980876#Comment_81980876

Any pictures of your tree?

lastbigspender

I am thinking I might have to replant them somewhere in the garden to get the best out of them.

If I do does anyone have any picture of their front door with potted trees/plants etc…

Just to get some ideas for new stuff

Thanks

gwynlas

No pictures but I have a number of potted yew trees in my courtyard garden all four aappear to be doing okay

Red robins do shed leaves prior to new growth but yours probably would do better planted in the garden.

I have lost a Fatsia and a bay this winter, no idea why as others perennials in similat condition are growing well

Farway

If I do does anyone have any picture of their front door with potted trees/plants etc…

Pots, the purple is Honesty, which I hope will also look good with the decorative seed pods. also daffs in season [tete a tete] and bedding geraniums of course. I also bung some small growing tomato plants in

Instead of honesty any long term bedding plants, antirrhinums are around right now, as are small fuschias

twopenny

I think that most sturdy shrubs that are destined to be big trees will struggle in a pot after a few years. A friend kept a red robin going by taking it out and pruning the roots every couple of years but it was not shaped. They aren't destined to be like that.

You could try root pruning, repotting in good soil based compost, prune the branches to an even length and feed.

But plants struggle and that calls in the bugs.

Otherwise just replace them.

Bay is the usual one done as a ball. I can't think of many that I've seen in garden centres. But they aren't meant to go on forever.

LessImpecunious

RHS suggests trimming them 2-3 times a year to maintain a thick hedge - if they were mine (and confess to having no experience of similar 😀) I would probably (in addition to repotting and/or refreshing compost/feeding) cut them back hard at the top, so you're just left with a few short twigs at the top of the two trunks, and hope for regrowth…