Pieris in a pot

If I had to recommend one plant for those who have black thumbs, it would probably be the shrub Pieris. It tolerates a hell of a lot of neglect, is great for container growing and produces gorgeous creamy bell-like flowers followed by red foliage in spring. It's a stunning bush, although my photo doesn't really do it justice.

The only possible wrinkle is that if you forget to cut off last season's flower heads once they're dead, you won't get so many flowers the following summer. That, ahem, may explain the lack of blooms on my shrub. It was just one of those jobs I never got around to.

This year I may top dress the pot, which simply means removing the gravel mulch (designed to prevent evaporation and cut down on watering) and the top 5cm or so of compost and replacing it with fresh compost. It's a quick way of giving a container plant a boost without having to repot it.

Comments

[Chris]

I couldn't agree more. If I were to suggest a variety it would be Pieris 'Mt. Fire', or perhaps a dwarf variety of Pieirs cavatine. Great plant!

[Richard Boyd]

Hi Jane

Nice blog, keep up the good work.

Like you we thought that in order to get the best from a Pieris you needed to cut back after flowering, however, we are working on a garden at present which has a mature Pieris in it (4M+). It’s a glorious plant and we’ve only seen one this size in public parks…

To get to the point, whilst we were talking to the client, we commented that the plant was out of shape and needed some radical pruning; she admitted that she had never touched it in 10 years! Wow the plant has so many flowers that you can barely see it’s a Pieris. I guess that mature plants really don’t need to be cut back.

P.S. I can post a picture if you would like, let me know.

Rich

[Pieris.eu]

"If I had to recommend one plant for those who have black thumbs, it would probably be the shrub Pieris."

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