Poorly Pots

hello, happy new year to everyone. haven't need to ask a question in ages but now have a bit of a problem

have noticed that the above shrubs which have been in large glazed ceramic pots for several years aren't looking as healthy as they should be. none of them did really well at all last year (bearing in mind the constant rain we all had), and they don't seem to have grown very much either. none of them produced any catkins the previous year and don't look as if they're going to this year either.

my question is this -- if they are left in pots, do they NOT grow as big as something which is in grown the ground ?? If this is correct, then how do i encourage healthier growth with a view to eventually having plants that do produce catkins ???

many thanks

shazza    

Hi Shazza. I'm interested in the answer to this to as my corkscrew hazel similarly grown in a pot also has next to no catkins this year. Fingers crossed it's not terminal.

Probably need re potting Shazza-no matter how much you feed a plant if it just a mass of roots then after a while they can't take up any nourishment

You have 3 choices-plant them in the ground,re-pot into bigger containers-or extract them from the current pots and drastically prune the root-ball to encourage fresh growth with fresh compost-then continue with a feeding regime

And no because you are effectively restricting them- they will not grow as big as in the garden

thank you for taking the time to reply.

the reason for putting things in large pots is because i don't have a huge garden, the plants were bought as Dwarf variety and am at a loss as to why they don't do very well at all, thought if they're bred as Dwarf then that's what they should stay as ???

anyway, will have to ponder for a while before deciding what to do with them because the Hazel is in a really large glazed pot that i can't actually move.

shazza

Even if they are dwarf they still run out of food.  What do you feed them on?  How often?  Do they ever run out of water?

Also, have you ever replaced the top three inches of soil or so with fresh compost? That really needs doing every year.

Thank you all for the advice. Don't belive mine is pot ound but will look for a suitable place to plant it in the ground and give it more attention.

Janet