Kitchen Garden Forum

But as I've never grown them before, I couldn't resist picking up one of those £1 little twiglets in Poundland - as part of my "rescue a plant" charitable nature.
I know they like acidic soil, and I've got a large container I can use for it. So does this mean no manure or soil improver of any kind around the roots? Has anybody EVER successfully raised one of this poor little orphan bushes successfully?

No, but if they like acidic soil you could probably do worse than ericaceous compost or fairly neutral stuff with added leafmould and tealeaves, teabags or coffee grounds, as they contain tanni acid. Roses love this treatment too. Best of British.

Thanks - I usually compost my teabags & coffee grounds anyway, so I'll start saving them in a separate crock. Unusually this little plant looked a lot healthier than the usual Poundland offerings, so perhaps with time and patience it may develop into something. On the pleasure scale, if it works, it will have proved cheaper than a glass of beer !

We have four blueberries on our plot and planted them in ericaceous compost. They don't provide a huge crop of berries yet but are growing well and we have had berries from them.

The berries tend to ripen over a longish period so its a case of picking over every time we visit them. The birds love them too.

I think this year I will give them a feed of the liquid fertiliser that you can buy for acid loving plants