Help with my Lilly Pillies

I planted a row of Lilly Pilly Sublime along my back fence last September. I'm in Melbourne, and the soil here is fairly solid clay. I dug out around 50-60cm round holes (width and depth). I now realise that I should have dug a trench, or at least wider and shallower holes. Anyway, I laid a bed of mushroom compost and gypsum at the bottom of the holes, then filled with a garden soil mix (soil and mushroom compost) from a garden supply place.

The lilly pillies were around 20 - 30cm tall. I wasn't sure whether to tease out all of the roots or not, as I'd read that you should leave Natives alone when planting, so I teased them out just a little.

They seemed to be growing well throughout spring and the start of summer, but around late December they copped a lot of heat and sun, and most of the leaves shriveled up and burnt. Whilst there is some green growth coming back, many of them don't seem to be growing much, and I thought they'd be looking a lot greener by now.

Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to kickstart their growth (again)?

Recently I've applied a liquid clay-breaker along the garden bed between the holes I dug, and I've been applying Seasol every couple of weeks for the last month). I did give them some Osmocote Native when I planted them, and I'm planning on giving them some more in Spring. I've also been watering them a fair bit. During the hot summer months I was out there 4 or 5 times a week watering. At the moment I'm giving them one really good soak a week, but we're also getting rain.

I'd also like to transplant a couple. The purpose of these is to block the view of a neighbours house. Unfortunately where the most privacy is needed, the plant is the smallest, so I was hoping to swap this for the largest plant. Is this a good idea, and if so, when should it be done?

We picked Lilly Pilly Sublime because we like the lime green rather than the red/orange growth. But we could only get them online, and paid a fortune for delivery, so it won't be cheap or easy to replace one plant.

Thanks for any tips.


This is the worst of the lot that I want to transplant:

Hi,
Wow those poor Lilly Pillies they really not happy. It is the beginning of winter so not much growth is going to happen right know so it’s going to be hard to see if they can thrive again. On the positive side it is winter time so it’s a good time to transfer them to another area.
Whether you keep them there or move them I would cut back all the dead branches & leaves that are half dried up. The plant is trying to get nutrients all over but the die or half dried leaves add strain to the plant. Winter is the best time to do it but you have to wait for spring time to see the new growth.

We are in Brisbane & I did the landscaping in November- December (hottest time) one of the days I was planting the plants was 38degrees. We have H2 soil lots & lots of clay plus sandstone. So I understand your soil & you did the right thing by adding gypsum & all the extra fertiliser etc. Because it’s winter when you add the fertiliser you really won’t get the benefit till spring time because it’s in a dormant stage. Even if you replace them with new plants the plants will not grow that much because it’s winter.

Before

heyho,

just like soph2 mentioned cut back all that dead stuff and just wait till spring.
I personally wouldn't be doing any transplanting in winter. I'm in Sydney and I know the winters here are too cold let alone Melbourne. The roots lay more or less dormant and unless its a deciduous plant, I'd wait till late winter, early spring (August) to move it ensuring it takes well to it's new position as the ground warms up.


You can treat a lot of the newer Lilly Pilly cultivars like 'normal' plants; just dont go too overboard on fertilisers. They still appreciate well composted manures and adequate water during the hotter months as original species of lilly pillies are native to rainforest-y areas (wetter and better soils than arid areas of Australia).

They're tough plants. Just gotta wait for spring

Thanks for the advice, My wife wants to rip them out and plant bamboo, but we're going to give them this coming spring to show some improvement, or else they're out!

BTW - they've been in the ground for 11 months. In that time they've almost doubled in size (great!), which means they've grown 20 - 30cm (not so great ).