From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   T wrote:   
   ...   
   > My soil is somewhat alkali.  But they are planted   
   > in ground pots filled with peat moss, which is   
   > acidic.  They never really grew well till   
   > this year, when they had a massive growth spurt   
   > and tons of flowers, which I never got before.   
      
     a lot of growth followed by a hot spell may   
   overtax the root system, especially if it is   
   confined as i think it may be.  you need to   
   keep the top of the plant sized to about what   
   the root system is below.  i do not know these   
   plants in specific well enough to know for sure   
   how much this may apply but as a general rule   
   for bushy plants it is probably ok.   
      
      
   >> have you amended   
   >> the soil where they're planted recently?   
   >   
   > A month ago everyone got fine powdered   
   > organic bone meal.  Everyone seemed to   
   > love.  I used it for transplant shock too at   
   > the beginning of the season.  Virtually   
   > zero shock.  Only my eggplants showed any   
   > shock, but it lasted only one day.   
      
     nowadays bone meal is very over processed   
   and doesn't have nearly the same stuff it   
   used to have.  that said my guess is that this   
   will not help your pH much.   
      
     neutral water with alkali soils and only   
   somewhat amended area means to me that the   
   surrounding soil is going to eventually   
   dominate and shift the pH to alkali again if   
   you do not consistently keep amending with   
   somewhat acidic things.   
      
      
   >> do they   
   >> need partial shade during hot weather?   
   >   
   > They've never seemed to care over the years.   
   > But they never had so much foliage before.   
   > And the worst heat was in July and the first   
   > part of August: 90 to 100F and 60 to 70F   
   > at night, which they seemed to thrive under.   
   > Now it is 80 to 90F and 40 to 60F at night.   
   >   
   > Don't suppose this is a deciduous thing and   
   > they think winter is upon them?  Seems   
   > way early.  And as I remember their leaves   
   > are beautiful red when the they start to fall.   
      
     no, i think may be more related to the plant   
   getting bigger than what the root system could   
   actually support.  i've no idea if they will   
   survive or not or if they will respond well to   
   being pruned or what.  since i don't know the   
   growth habit of them...   
      
     i would keep them moist enough so that they   
   do not dry out completely, but i would also not   
   want to drown them.   
      
      
   > I used to water every day during July and the first   
   > week in August when it was hottest.  Now, every   
   > other day.   
   >   
   > Our humidity is usually around 7 to 15%, but the   
   > last few weeks we have had higher humidity (swamp   
   > cooler hardly works) with thunderclouds all   
   > over but no rain.  Lots of virga though.   
   >   
   > With the two weeks of thunderclouds have come a lot   
   > of wind.  They have never seemed to care about   
   > that in the past.   
   >   
   > Several of my plants used to have aphids.   
   > I sprayed them with soapy water mixed with   
   > cayenne powder.  And, I poisoned the ants   
   > with my cheap poison (borax laundry powder,   
   > cheapest honey I could find, and water).   
   > EVERYONE loved that!!  But that was also   
   > months or so ago.   
   >   
   > I noticed the browning of the bilberry leaves   
   > about two weeks ago.  I thought they needed   
   > more water, which they got in spades, but that   
   > did not help.   
      
     are they dead now completely or just not looking   
   as good as before?   
      
     if there's anything left alive i would amend   
   with some organic matter (remove the top layer of   
   soil around the plant and replace it with new stuff)   
   and see if that helps.  if there is any really dead   
   and crispy stuff you could trim that off.  but i   
   would see a reference for the plant to see if there   
   is a better time to prune or what not to do with   
   respect to pruning because sometimes plants need   
   first year wood to use for the next season's flowers   
   or such.   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)