[Agatha]

I had two acers in pots, one atropurpureum and one 'Green Globe', but both died last summer.  I'd had the one for about 5 years and the other for 2.  I'd like to replace them this year (the garden centre near my parents sometimes has tiny acers for £4 which was where these came from) but don't want to lose the replacements.  Any idea what caused the problem or was it just the non-stop rain?

[JayG]

Acers were originally woodland plants - they prefer a bit of shade and really don't like exposure to strong winds which scorch the leaves.

Bit unfortunate to lose one after 5 years - waterlogged soil will eventually kill most plants although you wouldn't normally expect that to happen in pots.

[Trillium]

Hopefully you grew these Japanese Maple trees  in very large pots because they eventually can grow to more than 10 ft tall unless you keep them sort of bonsai pruned. Nothing kills a tree faster than strangled roots and wind damage.

In pots they prefer a fertile, moist but well drained neutral to acid soil with lots of of well rotted manure or garden compost like John Innes No 3 prior to planting in. The bare root plants must go in at the same depth as they were previously planted.  Then gently press soil and water to exclude air bubbles which can kill roots. And do give them annual feedings since they can quickly deplete soil nutrients.

All acers like some water but its very possible your potted ones got too much water, especially if they sat directly on a surface so do keep the pot raised a bit on pieces of wood or special clay pot lifters.

[ANHBUC]

Had they become pot bound?  I lost 2 the other year after the 2 bad winters we had.

[starry]

I have had my Acer in a pot for about 15 years the pot is about 18" across and the Acer is about 6ft high and  it is well and truly pot bound but is thriving although it has been severely attacked by scale insect these past 2 years I am hoping I have got rid of it now, they don't like lots of water as they have very fine roots so so they hate being waterlogged, and it is in a south facing garden, and the leaves do turn brown down one side quite quickly (that is the side that faces east so gets the morning sun when there is still dew on the leaves) at £4 you cant go wrong and sometimes you just get lucky mine was about that when I brought it from our local market       

[Agatha]

Thanks for the advice.  They were in the right compost, pots, position etc, but NOT on pot feet so I think that was where I went wrong (don't usually need to bother as they dry out so fast in most years!)  Will dig a few bricks out of my 'Flower bed' before I try again.