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Viburnum Tinus - can they survive this?

HumbleBeeHumbleBee Posts: 105
in Plants

In September last year I planted a stretch of Viburnum Tinus "Eve Price" hedging along the side of the house. I came out this morning to find that one of the neighbours cats has used it as a trampoline and almost a third of the plants have been flattened or broken. As I’m a newbie gardener and the hedge took a lot of time and effort to plant am gutted image

As the plants are still small (2L-sized) they were planted closely together. Unfortunately however, the damaged plants are not all conveniently next to each other but dotted in amongst healthy ones. I’m therefore worried that digging out the broken ones to replace with new plants will damage the roots of the unbroken plants either side.

So - are these plants tough enough to cope with some root disturbance if I dig around with a spade (and possibly accidentally dig through a few roots in the process...)? I don't think I can face having to replant everything from scratch again... image  

Posts

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,679
    image

    Hello Humblebee. Unless your neighbour has Norwegian Forest cats, which are the size of a fox, (see above) I doubt if  it is cats that have done this. More likely young foxes playing.

    Anyway, if your plants were in 2l pots they must be very small indeed and will have very small roots too. If you are sure that there isn't any chance of them growing from the ground up then dig the beyond-help ones up and shuggle the others around to fill in the gaps evenly. It's still winter and they will still be dormant.

    Viburnum tinus is a big plant. You won't need to have more than one to a metre when they are mature anyway. image

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    I wouldn't be too despondent, viburnhams are tough old shrubs. They can be pruned hard and damaged and they'll come back. I'd cut out any broken stems and then give them a feed of fish blood and bone and let them get on with it. They are probably too close together in the first place so thinning them out would allow quicker growth overall. If you have to lift any of them use a fork, they won't have large root systems yet anyway. 

  • HumbleBeeHumbleBee Posts: 105

    Well funnily enough I have recently seen both a very large fluffy grey cat and also a fox in our back garden so the culprit could in fact be either of them - or both! Judging by the amount of poop I keep finding I don't think either of them appreciate my hard work! image
    I hadn't thought about just thinning them out (they are about 3 or 4 per metre at the moment) That may actually even things out a bit without needing too much extra surgery / moving. And I will use a fork instead of a spade - I hadn't thought of that (I'm still on a steep learning curve which includes bits of very basic stuff!!)
    Thanks Pansy face and Dave for the feedback - very much appreciated! image

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