Dirca palustris & lime leaching from concrete

Hi Chris and Gene...I had to look this plant up and it's pretty both as a  
single stem and multiple...here's a nice web site:
 
_http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/d/dirpal/dirpal1.html_ 
(http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/d/dirpal/dirpal1.html) 
 
I read with interest the comments about the site as I have a similar  
situation with my garage which I believe is leaching lime from the concrete as  
nothing that prefers a slightly acidic soil (magnolias to viburnums) does  
well there for long regardless of the amendments and TLC I provide. 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/4/2009 2:20:46 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
lindsey@mallorn.com writes:

On Sep  04, Gene Bush wrote:
> > The Dirca palustris that I got from them has  finally gotten 
substantial,
> > though.  It's about 5' tall and  gorgeous in March when it's covered 
with
> > those little yellow  flowers.  I think I might have to move it since 
it's
> > too  close to a walkway now -- I honestly never thought it would do well
>  > in the first place.  :)Chris
> 
> I had t look that one  up...Dirca. Dirr says acidic soil, put with
> rhodies..is your soil  acidic, or did you do a bit of amending?

Hi Gene,

I  actually didn't do anything to the soil, but it seems very  happy.
The plant is on the north side of the garage (which is  on a concrete
slab).  It's planted right next to a  Rhododendron mucronulatum, so 
I get color early in the  spot.  I really wanted to put it next to 
the carolina  silverbell (Halesia carolina), but there's not enough
room.  

If I had to guess I'd say that the pH there  is around 6.5 - 7.0.  It
does get a lot of irrigation  water.

I noticed that the Morton Arboretum has been  experimenting with these
a lot lately.  Some of their  display gardens now have large Dirca
in unamended soil with  non-acid plants.  Some of the Dirca are even
in full sun  for a portion of the day (which totally shocked me!)

I  think these plants are tougher than people originally thought,  
but they're still not used much because propagation is a  pain.

Chris

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