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Physocarpus care & growing conditions

#1 · 30th January 2023, 11:47 am

Hi to all. Can anyone advise me what to do with my Physocarpus 'Darts Gold'. Originally when bought, the plan was to plant it in a South facing border (heavy clay soil) in part shade, however after a few weeks, nothing was happening and it looked quite sickly. I dug it up and transferred in to a large pot, up against the house wall (West facing). Success! It was thriving and grew well (but no flowers) . I would like to know, will it be ok to permanently live in the pot and when do I prune it (to keep it fairly compact)? Do I wait until the Spring? Will it flower and when?Thank you.

#2 · 30th January 2023, 12:30 pm

Hi @my-tiny-garden

Physocarpus is a seriously hardwearing shrub. Tolerant of pretty much everything. It’s other name is Ninebark given its shedding bark in the winter as it gets older.

This power shrub will survives in heavy clay, exposure but doesn’t perform well in my experience in any shade. Even though it should my planting with this has always shown that more sun works best.

In terms of flowers. It depends on how big it is. It needs to get to about 4ft before it starts flowering in late summer profusely. So it ma y just be a bit young at the moment.

Don’t panic too much it will flower. Glad you’ve used your Garden Ninja Intuition to move it. Least the plants now told you were it needs to be. It definitely will need to go in the ground at some point as they get big and need some root space.

Hope that helps.

Lee