Growing your Rice Paper Plant
Thank you for your purchase of a very special Tetrapanax.
These young plants have been lovingly propagated and grown and deserve the best care for huge growth next year. As such, we suggest that you give them a mild amicable winter.
They’re young plants and will not be happy (unless you live in a very mild location), being planted directly outside without some thought to winter protection. So, you either keep your ‘Baby Rex’ in a cool or cold glasshouse for the winter months and plant out in the spring once the worst of winter has passed, or plant now in a sheltered spot giving some protection during the colder months. This can either be a snug fleece jacket, or heavy mulch of good compost around the base and/or a skirt of loosely tied straw around the trunk and growing point.
In essence this is a young plant that when larger will have huge vigour, produce leaves over a meter across looking spectacular but when young they can be a little fragile so it’s worth a little effort in these early days.
These plants are around 12 months old from propagation.
When planting, for best results add a very rich compost such as composted farmyard manure to a rate of 50/50 with your existing soil. Dig a hole at least twice the size of the root ball, ideally followed by a layer of good quality multi-purpose compost at around 3-5cm thick, this helps the young Tetrapanax transition from the container compost to the soil. Then back fill with your 50/50 mix of rich compost and existing soil. Gently firm around the base and water in. Once finished add a deep layer, up to 10cm, of well rotted farmyard manure or garden compost around the base.
Tetrapanax like to be moist but not waterlogged – they will not tolerate standing in water.
Thank you again!
For any further information about your Rice Paper Plant, please either call us on 01903 891466 or email us at info@bigplantnursery.co.uk and we will be glad to help.
