Gadenin日本語Get the appThe first three years do all the work
A slow evergreen takes longer to establish than a fast deciduous shrub, and it carries leaves through the whole period, which means it is losing water every day of the year including winter. For the first three growing seasons, treat watering as a scheduled job rather than something you do when the plant looks thirsty. By the time the leaves look dull the roots have already been dry for days, and a dry spell during bud formation costs you flowers you will never see.
The rule is volume and infrequency, not sprinkling. In the first year, water deeply once a week through the growing season and twice a week in genuine heat, using two to three gallons (8 to 12 liters) each time, delivered slowly at the base. In the second year, drop to once every ten days or so during dry weather. From the third year on, an established plant in the ground only needs help in a long drought. Container plants never reach that point and need checking every few days all season.
Check before you water rather than watering on faith. Push a finger, or better a thin stick, four inches (10 cm) into the soil at the edge of the root ball. If it comes out damp, wait. Constant light watering is worse than none, because it keeps the top inch wet and teaches roots to stay shallow.
Feed after flowering, and stop feeding early
This shrub is not hungry. On decent soil, an annual mulch of compost is genuinely enough, and overfeeding causes a specific problem worth understanding: nitrogen late in the season pushes soft leafy growth that does not ripen before cold weather. Unripened shoots do not set flower buds, and they are the first thing to be killed by frost and wind. A plant that is all lush green leaf and no scent has usually been fed too much and too late.
If you do feed, use a balanced slow-release granular fertilizer at the start of the growing season, scattered over the root zone out to the edge of the canopy and watered in. A second light feed straight after flowering is worthwhile on poor ground because it supports the growth that will carry next year's buds. After midsummer, nothing containing appreciable nitrogen goes anywhere near the plant.
Container plants are the exception in one respect: their compost is finite. Feed them with a balanced liquid feed every two to three weeks through the first half of the growing season, then stop. Top-dress the pot each spring by scraping off the top two inches (5 cm) of old compost and replacing it with fresh, and repot into the next size up every three to four years while the plant is still increasing in size.
| Task | Timing | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Deep watering | Growing season, first three years | Getting roots out of the original ball |
| Mulch top-up | Once a year, early in the growing season | Moisture, weed control, slow feeding |
| Balanced granular feed | Start of the growing season | Supports the shoots that will carry buds |
| Light feed after bloom | Immediately after flowering ends | Recovery on poor or sandy soil |
| No nitrogen | Midsummer onward | Lets the season's growth ripen and set buds |
| Windbreak check | Before the first hard frost | Prevents scorched leaf margins |
| Pot top-dress | Once a year, before growth starts | Replaces exhausted compost |
| Repot | Every three to four years | Keeps a container plant from strangling itself |
Cold, wind and moving pots to shelter
Most of what looks like frost damage on this plant is wind damage. Cold by itself is generally tolerated well; cold combined with a steady dry wind, on frozen ground where the roots cannot resupply the leaves, produces browned crisp leaf margins across the windward side. The plant usually survives it and grows out of it, but the scorched leaves do not recover and the shrub looks poor for a whole season.
The fixes are all physical rather than chemical. Mulch thickly before the ground freezes so the root zone stays insulated and unfrozen for longer. Water once deeply in late autumn if the season has been dry, because a hydrated plant scorches less. For young plants in an exposed spot, put up a temporary screen of windbreak mesh or hessian on the windward side; leave the top open so air moves and the plant does not cook on a sunny winter day.
In climates where winters are too hard for it in the open ground, grow it in a large pot and move it. Bring the pot into an unheated, bright, sheltered space before the first hard frost and keep the compost barely moist through the cold months, checking monthly rather than watering on a schedule. Bring it back outside gradually once hard frosts are finished, giving it a week in a shaded sheltered position first so the leaves are not scorched by sudden full sun.
Keep a note of when the plant went under cover and when it came back out, along with how it looked in early spring. After two or three years those notes tell you whether you are moving it too late, too early, or fussing over a plant that would have been fine outside.
The small jobs that keep it looking right
Keep grass and weeds off the root zone entirely for the first few years. Turf competing at the base of a slow evergreen measurably slows it down, and a string trimmer nick at the base of the stem on a shrub this slow is a wound that takes years to close over.
Look inside the plant twice a year, not just at the outside. Because the growth is so dense, dead twigs, accumulated fallen leaves and the first scale insects all hide in the interior where you never look. Part the branches, pull out the debris by hand, and cut out any dead wood you find. Air movement through the middle of the shrub is the cheapest disease control there is.
Do not let it dry out while the flower buds are swelling. Drought stress in the run-up to flowering causes buds to abort, and you get a season with plenty of healthy leaf and hardly any scent, which is easy to misdiagnose as a pruning mistake.