Shady spot a year on

[Valkarie]

I asked for advice last year here as I have one part of my flower bed that doesn't get much sun. I got some good advice and have added a Japanese maple and a hebe.

But they are sad! I have attached a couple of pictures, but they don't show it particularly well. I don't think either have grown and colours are faded. Lobelia is practically dead, but I think that prefers sun. I moved a wallflower there early spring as it had got too big for where I planted it originally and that was dead within a week.

Raspberry's are growing great and the feral poppy's that have always been there are happy. I get a lot of bindweed from next door under the fence, so some things do grow well.

Soil is heavy, but not notably different to the rest of the bed apart from lack of sun. Things do fine at the other end.

Any advice on what is going wrong?

How deep is the soil?

Acers will need watering in the first year (although they don't like to sit in water), as will the hebe. The soil does look very dry but maybe that's just the picture?

Wall flowers really do need full sun I'm afraid!

The soil looks rather dry and poor. Water and dig in some compost. Japanese Maples like to grow ericaceous compost, so I’d buy a bag and dig it around the base of the Maple carefully, so not to disturb the roots. You could also give it an ericaceous feed.
The Maple also looks very young and small, they are not always fast growers and some take a few years to get going. That’s why larger specimens cost so much.
Hopefully they’ll survive.

I have some ericacious for the blueberries, so will dig some of that in. The soil isn't brilliant and water tends to sit on the top. It was dry in the photo, but raining on and off all week, it just dries out quickly on top.

Agree on price of the bigger maples, too much to risk killing straight away. Thank you for the new advice.

I really think you should improve the soil first. Have you got a compost bin? Or access to some manure? If not a few bags of cheap garden compost to mix in.

No compost bin, the garden isn't really big enough to have a space for one or produce enough to go in it. Except for the incredibly prolific bindweed of course! But can certainly add dome more compost from a bag.

The wallflower will have died from root damage when moving it, they don't die in the shade, just may not flower as well.