I have a beautiful 2 metre high Puka, which I planted in part sun last spring. I have references that say it grows in full sun, and others that say dont plant it in the sun as it will burn. Sure enough the new leaves which emerged in December burned and shrivelled like brown paper bags. Watering was twice a week. Soil sandy loam............do I need to put it in shade ?
They come from the Three Kings Islands off the tip end of Northland and tend to pick up the tail ends of cyclones dropping rain in hefty amounts. Yes, we do have dry spells, but not as sustained as yours.
They grown in full sun in the Wellington Botanical Gardens - and with a lot of the windiness for which Wellington is notorious. About 1km from the harbour and definitely gets salt spray. No harm.
It will tolerate a semi-shaded position. However, you might also want to mulch fairly deeply after a good spell of autumn rain and see if that brings an improvement.
If you can make a micro-climate that will raise the humidity level around the plant, too. When it's not raining ;-) the humidity is reasonably high...(70+) eg for this evening it's around 88%.
Rug13, They are readily available in Melbourne. There is a specialist nursery distributing them. I will try to find out the name of the supplier ... but it may take some weeks before I go past the nursery again.
vetivert8
marionc
rug13y
chris_rexOriginal Author