Any pachysandra experts here?

[Fred Voorhees]

I established this bed today. The spot was dreadful to try to mow, so I finally, after years of putting up with it, did something about it. Bought two flats of pachysandra and had the neighbor bring his backhoe over and scratch up the surface and today I got to work. Cleaned up the debris, raked it out, applied a heavy layer of mulch and planted the plants. I have no doubt that they will grow, but I am curious as to what I could do to get the plants to spread as fast as possible. I didn't amend the soil at all, just planted and watered the heck out of 'em. Any ideas about how to hasten the growing/spreading process? I have already had someone recommend horse dookey. I can get that if it would help. Just looking for suggestions.

[Zach England]

Take cuttings of your existing plants and pot them up in moist vermiculite. Keep them warm and shaded. By late summer they should be well rooted and can be transplanted. Rootone may be helpful, but is probably unnecessary.

[David G Baker]

I use Miracle Grow on almost everything I plant. By not amending the soil you may have slowed the the growing by a little depending on the soil type and needs.

[Charlie Reals]

Fred, I would be very careful with horse manure unless it is very well cured as it will burn whatever you put it on iffin it aint.
my2cs Charlie

[Mike Cutler]

Fred, I would be very careful with horse manure unless it is very well cured as it will burn whatever you put it on iffin it aint.
my2cs Charlie

I'll 2nd that. As someone that shovels it on a pretty regular basis. If the horse poop is coming from cleaning out stalls, it's also going to have a high urine(ammonia) content.

[John Keeton]

I would broadcast some Preen over the area to keep the weed and grass seeds from germinating. The pachysandra doesn't seed itself, and the Preen shouldn't effect it. And, hopefully, that tree is not a walnut tree?!?! That could cause an issue.

[Fred Voorhees]

I would broadcast some Preen over the area to keep the weed and grass seeds from germinating. The pachysandra doesn't seed itself, and the Preen shouldn't effect it. And, hopefully, that tree is not a walnut tree?!?! That could cause an issue.

No John, it's not a walnut. And we use Preen every year and have some left over from this seasons application. Good call, I'll do that. Will probably go with Miricid since I beleive the Pachysandra is an acid loving plant.

[Paul Greathouse]

Fred,

Something else to consider before using the horse manure. You run the risk of introducing all kinds of unwanted weeds.

The weeds come from any free grazing that the horses do but also from grain that they consume. I've seen some really strange weeds growing around the manure pile that obviously were not native to our property.