Thorny problems: do we need to use fertiliser? From that picture, it looks as though the stems of the plant are still green, and I suspect that the root is therefore fine. Now is the best time to cut it hard back to within about 18 inches of the ground in the hope that it will snap swiftly into action and start growing again. If it does it will certainly flower late, and may not have time to set any fruit before the autumn. I might add that since you want to confine it somewhat, you should aim to cut it back hard every year. You may decide (as many have done) that a passion flower is too manic and tatty to grow in a small space. Any old rose? I have been told that "you can't replace an old rose with a new one unless you change the soil." Does this mean an "Old Rose," as in one of the ancient shrub rose varieties that flowers only once, or just any old elderly rose? I am about to replace a very old "Old Rose" (pink, name unknown) that is on its last legs, with a modern English Rose ('Gertrude Jekyll') that repeat flowers. Advice appreciated. Vikki C, via email I have to say such a possible confusion is a new one on me. This is basically about so-called "rose sickness," the cause of which is presumed to be destructive microscopic soil-dwelling nematodes, to which old-established roses - that is, any roses that have been in situ for more than five years - are presumed to be immune. Until relatively recently the best advice for overcoming the frustrating problem of rose sickness, where new roses simply failed to thrive, was to replace completely a substantial quantity of soil in the area when replacing one rose with another. Or you could plant the newcomer in good soil-based compost within a cardboard box, the presumption being that by the time the box had disintegrated the new rose would be big and tough enough to cope with whatever bogeybugs the unknown underworld beyond had in store for it. The problem is now more simply dealt by using Rootgrow (natural beneficial mycorrhizal fungi out of a packet) when planting. On making direct contact, the fungi attach themselves to the rose roots and grow outwards, searching for water and nutrients. This forms a symbiotic relationship between plant and fungi that results in stronger and more disease-resistant plant growth. Rootgrow thus dramatically helps combat rose sickness and is now routinely provided by growers such as David Austin Roses. There are clear instructions on how to apply it to both bare-rooted and container grown plants - far easier than replacing the soil. Why do we need to feed? I seem to spend my life scattering things around my garden (chicken pellets one year, blood fish and bone the next, together with the contents, as far as it will stretch, of the compost bin), while acquiring a shed full of bags of partly used fertilisers because, we are told, different plants need different fertilisers. But what am I actually achieving? Is it all a plot on the part of the marketing people? Could you explain simply what we need to do - and what you do, for instance? Carol Selby-Lowndes, via email Oh what a loaded question. Answering this has the potential to upset just about everyone - from white-coated scientists and the makers of Day-Glo inorganic soluble feeds right through to serried ranks of organic allotmenters. Thanks a bunch, Carol. In theory, we shouldn't need to feed our plants. After all, the natural world looks after itself. A garden, however, is an unnatural environment. We cram a small patch of earth full of plants that in their natural habitat might have very differing needs, and expect super performances year after year: fabulous flowers from roses, huge leaves from hostas, endless flowering from annuals, a perfect lawn etc. Plants crowded together suffer from drought, which encourages disease, weakening them further. To make things worse, we clear up every bit of debris from our gardens that would otherwise go back into the soil, eventually to create vital humus without which plants can't grow. So we need first and foremost to feed the soil, putting back as much moisture-retaining, humus-creating organic stuff as we can - invariably more than those of us with average-sized gardens can make in our compost bins. Whatever we choose or don't choose to do, we should all feed our plants. Certain plants will perform better - and importantly show more disease resistance - given certain nutrients, each of which has a different "function": flowering plants (and tomatoes) like extra potash, summer lawns benefit from nitrogen that encourages green leaves, while the roots of autumn grass are strengthened by phosphates etc. And lime-haters don't like animal manure. It is a big subject if you want it to be. I try to keep it simple. I give my garden masses of manure-based organic matter each year (which I buy, to supplement my own compost), adding it to the soil when I plant and mulching around individual plants in spring. I make oak-leaf mould for lime-haters and woodlanders. In addition, I spread a general, balanced fertiliser on my flower borders once a year (for "balanced" nutrients look at the NPK ratio on the packaging - beware, you won't find precise information on chicken manure pellets, which are nitrogen-rich). I also give high-potash rose food to my flowering shrubs and I use seaweed-based liquid fertiliser as a pick-me-up (for ailing plants that is, not me, silly). Flower-shy elaeagnus Thelma Russell-Hayes in Middleton-on-Sea is on the point of digging up her six-year-old Elaeagnus pungens, bought specifically for its scent. She has twice pruned it, and also let it grow large - all to no avail. It refuses to flower, she says. Very occasionally rogue shrubs just won't flower, or barely (I had a Cytisus battandieri once...). But usually it is "owner error" that causes such frustration. Evergreen Elaeagnus pungens flowers infuriatingly in the darkest, coldest part of the winter. The flowers are carried below the leaves and are so subtly coloured as to be nearly invisible. It is also possible, unless the weather is unseasonably balmy, that the lily-of-the-valley scent of the flowers of Thelma's single plant just refuses to "waft" in the cold air. Whole hedges of the stuff are more scintillatingly scented. The other possibility is the pruning. This shrub is big, and needs a fairly hard spring prune, and a subtle one in late summer - go too far at this time and you will cut off the branches that would flower in winter. Finally: a flower-inducing feed with sulphate of potash in mid/late summer might knock it into shape.