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| Hello! I have two euonymous plants in front of my house. Because of the way shadows from buildings fall, one plant gets more sunlight than the other. That plant is much shorter than the shaded euonymous.
If I water and fertilize the one on the sunny side, will it sort of catch up to the shaded one? Or is this just silly? : ) Thanks for your advice!
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 2, 11 at 15:32
| nothing is silly if it works .... but i suspect that the differing amounts of sunlight are not going to be fixed with 'food', as some might call it ... how do you know they are the same plant.. did you plant them ??? one other solution is to simply remove the smaller one.. removing the need for them to be the same .... what bothers me.. is that i expected you to say the one in shade was stunted ... not the one in sun... hmmm .. water issue???? how did you plant it.. if you did .... there might be something going on in the roots that you cant see ... and .. are both plant scale free ????? a severe infestation could be inhibiting proper growth ... ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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- Posted by valeriavictrix (My Page) on Wed, Feb 2, 11 at 16:44
| Ken, you're great! Yes, I planted them. No infestations as far as I can see. Maybe it's just individual differences in the plants! Yes--I planted one on each side of a walkway. Maybe I should just take 'em both out. I just thought that euonymous is a shade-lover, so the shady side grew taller. |
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| Are they equally dense? Plants in shade tend to be rangier and plants in sun tend to be denser and hence more compact. Rather than speculate that the ones in shade are scrambling to find some sun, I will simply observe that this is the case. Which is to say, fertilizing won't help (which is often the case!). But I agree with Ken, it won't cost you much to try so hey, have at it. Though what you could try (other than yanking the one you don't like as much and trying something else, which is actually what I would suggest) is pruning down the larger one rather than trying to have the smaller one catch up. Not only is this by definition going to succeed, but if (as I surmised) the larger plant is rangier in habit it may balance them out in that way, too, since pruned plants tend to "dense up". That is a long-winded posting but my actual advice is don't try too hard to make a plant what you want it to be, life is too short. Find a plant that grows exactly how you want it to grow in that spot. |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Wed, Feb 2, 11 at 22:37
| valeriavictrix, here's a thread with a photo of a conifer odd couple, for your amusement: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/conif/msg1112034015907.html?22 [There are actually three photos of mismatched conifer pairs.] I concur: a little fertilizer, a little pruning. You may see a small improvement; you may see a lot of improvement. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 3, 11 at 10:35
| I agree with simcam....and had a reponse all written out last night that I neglected to send that said virtually the same thing:-) Plants grown in more shade than is ideal tend to be rangier and lanky, with greater distance between internodes. More fertilizer or water does not correct this. Either relocate one or both plants to a similar setting or prune the lanky one to match its cousin. And FWIW, while many varieties of euonymus are very shade tolerant, I'd not consider them to be real shade LOVERS. |
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| The problem you are having is one of the reasons to avoid matching pairs and other identical groupings of plants - unless the architecture of the involved building calls for geometric symmetry. A great many people put matching pairs at doorways even when the facade around them is not geometrically symmetric. When a building has an asymmetric facade, as is very often the case coordination of plantings etc. used with them needs to employ informal balance in order for the whole to be cohesive. With shrubs at a door an example of this a large shrub on one side and a small one and a medium one on the other. Both groupings are the same size, producing a balance, but not identical. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 3, 11 at 13:24
| when you planted them.. were they root bound container plants... did you do anything to unwind or prune the roots??? that is more likely to impact vigor than anything else.. including uptake of nutrients and water ... if they are a few feet apart.. i cant see the light or shade being so SIGNIFICANTLY different to explain what you call 'much shorter' .... its possible.. but what is the probability ... personally i hate them.. because of the scale issue ... and if you are inclined to be done with them ... i will give you two thumbs up on that decision .... of the many i have had.. sooner or later.. the scale will show up.. apparently in my two gardens anyway ... IMHO.. there are a LOT of things better suited to the front of a house .... to make a stunning impact or statement about your house .... throw these out back where they will fill some space [and while you have them out of the ground.. see if the root masses are equivalent .. i think something is going on in the ground.. that we cant see] .. and give the front of the house another go ... its your guests first impression ... ken |
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- Posted by valeriavictrix (My Page) on Thu, Feb 3, 11 at 18:37
| Missingtheobvious, I LOVED this! Thanks for the great link! Ken, simcan, bboy, gardengal--thanks SO much! Great advice about symmetry, bboy! Thanks to Gardenweb's advice last summer, I removed three enormous piney-things (can't remember the name) which were hiding a lovely bay window. I thought I needed some kind of shrubbery in front, so I picked euonymous. It's sorta evergreen, and I don't want any more monsters with needles! But I'd love to hear your sugestions for alternative shrubs. Here are a couple of photos: An old one showing the massive trees (now gone) and the sidewalk. I planted one euonymous on each side of the walk, close to the porch http://flic.kr/p/9fsYbU http://flic.kr/p/9fsXK7 So, if I ditch the eunymous, should I just forget about replacing them? Or do you have any recommendations for something low maintenance that looks nice all year on the north side of the house? You folk bring the sunshine to Northeast PA! |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 6, 11 at 15:42
| heres the deal ... wait til good weather.. go for walk .. take camera.. find houses with similar porches .. take pics of landscaping you like ..... post here .. we ID.. and you go plant .... been there.. done that ... and if you find some other nightmares .. post those also..we like a good chuckle ... your living room must have gone from a dark cave to a wonderfully bright room when you got rid of those horrible giants conifers covering the windows ... ken |
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