All the Pots-abilities! Container Gardening 101

<v Speaker 1>Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
<v Speaker 1>It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me,
<v Speaker 1>Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
<v Speaker 1>consider the potsibilities and Stacy, I did not come up
<v Speaker 1>with that pun. It was one of our listeners who
<v Speaker 1>came up with that.
<v Speaker 2>Is.
<v Speaker 1>We're going to talk about container gardening today and when
<v Speaker 1>you container garden, you're putting a plant on a pedestal
<v Speaker 1>for all to see. We're going to break that down
<v Speaker 1>for you today and have your flowers gone to pot. Well,
<v Speaker 1>maybe that's a good thing, because some plants are better
<v Speaker 1>in containers than in the ground. And I should mention
<v Speaker 1>probably Stacey right off the bat as we talk about
<v Speaker 1>putting together your beautiful containers for this year, going to
<v Speaker 1>Proven Winner's website and looking at the recipe ideas. These
<v Speaker 1>are not ideas that someone just conjured up in a
<v Speaker 1>room and penciled down, but rather these are vetted and
<v Speaker 1>trialed recipes. A great place for many people to stop.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there are so many recipes. I am truly in
<v Speaker 2>awe of how many they've created and what really makes
<v Speaker 2>those recipes different. You know, they're for garden centers as
<v Speaker 2>well as for home gardeners to use in their own inspiration.
<v Speaker 2>But what Proven Winners does is they take the vigor
<v Speaker 2>rating of each plant, and they pair plants together so
<v Speaker 2>that there's not like three super vigorous different plants that
<v Speaker 2>are constantly competing and constantly overgrowing each other. You can
<v Speaker 2>have one vigorous plant and you have to position it
<v Speaker 2>away from the less vigorous plants. And less vigorous isn't bad.
<v Speaker 2>It just means it doesn't grow as fast or take over.
<v Speaker 2>So it's really about that balance. And you know, people
<v Speaker 2>like me just do it by trial and error. And
<v Speaker 2>I have kind of gone mostly to doing mono containers.
<v Speaker 2>Oh okay, mostly because I do like the looks. So
<v Speaker 2>I'm on containers just a container with one plant in it,
<v Speaker 2>not a big fabulous combination, partly because I do like
<v Speaker 2>the look, and partly because my containers are on the
<v Speaker 2>small side. My collection has just kind of turned out
<v Speaker 2>to be a little bit on the smaller side, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like fourteen inches and smaller, so they don't necessarily make
<v Speaker 2>for great pairings. Even though I've tried that for many years,
<v Speaker 2>I've found myself feeling a little disappointed by the end
<v Speaker 2>of the season. So I just go for one big,
<v Speaker 2>super showy thriller in each container and call it today.
<v Speaker 1>Interesting. We'll talk about that today, because there is nothing
<v Speaker 1>wrong with just putting one plant in a pot. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>monochromatic colors also today there are so many different fabulous
<v Speaker 1>containers that you can pick from that if you picked
<v Speaker 1>the monochromatic color for your scheme, sometimes the container can
<v Speaker 1>be the star of the show. So these are all
<v Speaker 1>things to keep in mind. And you're right, Stacey, I
<v Speaker 1>have my personal recipe that I like to use. I
<v Speaker 1>love to use the salvia blue suede shoes as the
<v Speaker 1>thriller in a container. It's worked out really well for me.
<v Speaker 1>And have some pictures for folks on YouTube of the
<v Speaker 1>hummingbirds coming to my blue suede shoes. And of course
<v Speaker 1>my theory, Stacey, and that is colorful foliage that you
<v Speaker 1>get from colius or from heart to heart kalladiums combined
<v Speaker 1>with let's say a plant like kufia, they almost act
<v Speaker 1>as a colorful billboard attracting humming birds to your landscape.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, I pick pretty much all of my
<v Speaker 2>container plantings on two things. Do they attract hummingbirds or
<v Speaker 2>are they edible? If those two things can be combined,
<v Speaker 2>great case of maybe nasturtium, let's say. But for the
<v Speaker 2>most part that those are my qualifications that I need
<v Speaker 2>to decide if I'm going to grow something in a container.
<v Speaker 2>And all of us have different, you know, sort of
<v Speaker 2>qualifications that we use. And yeah, but you know, attracting
<v Speaker 2>hummingbirds is so important to me because when I sit
<v Speaker 2>on my back patio there and you know, all of
<v Speaker 2>the plants are in full bloom, and hummingbirds are coming
<v Speaker 2>and feeding like you know, five inches from your knee
<v Speaker 2>because they're just so entranced by all of the flowers.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, that is just a highlight of the season
<v Speaker 2>right there.
<v Speaker 1>I agree it's thrilling. So here's a simple formula for
<v Speaker 1>a sixteen inch container. Let's go with a sixteen inch
<v Speaker 1>container to have a thriller in the center, two to
<v Speaker 1>three fillers around that thriller, and then two to three
<v Speaker 1>spillers around the edge, maybe five or six plants. That's
<v Speaker 1>going to be a packed container. But it takes the
<v Speaker 1>approach thriller, filler, spiller or focal filler Edger trailer working
<v Speaker 1>from the center out and stacy. For me, I have
<v Speaker 1>to admit that one of the fa favorite things for
<v Speaker 1>me and planting up containers usually ends up being the
<v Speaker 1>thriller in the center.
<v Speaker 2>I agree completely. I mean to me, that's kind of
<v Speaker 2>what it all gets based around. That kind of determines
<v Speaker 2>you know, which container you're going to use, what color
<v Speaker 2>of the you know, filler and spiller you're going to use,
<v Speaker 2>and all of that. Of course, it can happen another way.
<v Speaker 2>You can find something else, a spiller that you really
<v Speaker 2>like and build back from that. But yeah, I find
<v Speaker 2>that I'm always planning around those thrillers. And like I said,
<v Speaker 2>I've learned my lesson. I've definitely tried to cram a
<v Speaker 2>lot of things into a container, and you know, they
<v Speaker 2>do pretty okay. It's not like I'm like left with
<v Speaker 2>nothing or I regret it. It's just that I have
<v Speaker 2>found I prefer to let those thrillers really get big,
<v Speaker 2>to use all of that container space and just be
<v Speaker 2>you know, over the top, rather than share the stage.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I think your approach with containers should be
<v Speaker 1>that you can take some risks and this is not
<v Speaker 1>a long term commitment. If it crashes and burns, we
<v Speaker 1>can have a do over. Yeah, it's pretty easy to do.
<v Speaker 1>And that's the great thing about containers. Make sure that
<v Speaker 1>we have a drainage hole. That's probably one of the
<v Speaker 1>most important things if you're going to container. Garden and
<v Speaker 1>potting mix specially designed for containers. It's light and fluffier
<v Speaker 1>than garden soil, so it drains the water but still
<v Speaker 1>holds moisture and nutrients, provides air pockets for the roots,
<v Speaker 1>stays nice and light and fluffy. I looked at a
<v Speaker 1>quote from a greenhouse here in West Michigan. I love
<v Speaker 1>the way they put this. Think of potting mix as
<v Speaker 1>the five star hotel for plant roots, while garden soil
<v Speaker 1>is more like sleeping on the ground in a tent.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, it's very I feel like it's gotten
<v Speaker 2>really difficult for people to choose what to use at
<v Speaker 2>the garden center because there are just so many options.
<v Speaker 2>You know, back in the day, you could see like, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>there was garden soil, there was potting soil, and that
<v Speaker 2>was it. And so you're saying, Okay, if it's going
<v Speaker 2>in the garden, I use the garden soil. If it's
<v Speaker 2>going in a container. I'm using the potting mix. But
<v Speaker 2>now it's not like that anymore. Now there's raised bed
<v Speaker 2>soil and garden soil it. You know, it's just like
<v Speaker 2>there's all of these crazy names, and the thing is
<v Speaker 2>you have to look at the ingredients. You have to
<v Speaker 2>flip that bag over and look at what's in it.
<v Speaker 2>And potting mixes, regardless of whether they say potting mix
<v Speaker 2>or potting soil or who knows what on the front,
<v Speaker 2>they should contain no actual soil. And that's kind of
<v Speaker 2>a crazy thing for people because they think, oh, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I still do use the term potting soil, even though
<v Speaker 2>I try not to. I try to, you know, practice
<v Speaker 2>what I preach, heer and say potting mix. But you know,
<v Speaker 2>if you have any actual soil, actual weathered earth material
<v Speaker 2>in that, yeah, it totally. It makes it heavy. It
<v Speaker 2>messes with the drainage. It's harder for roots to grow
<v Speaker 2>in there in the container environment. So you want that
<v Speaker 2>nice fluffy container mixed potting mix. But you know what
<v Speaker 2>else has happened in the last like ten or fifteen years.
<v Speaker 2>They stopped shipping a lot of containers with drainage already
<v Speaker 2>drilled out. Yeah, they don't have any drainage in them already.
<v Speaker 2>And a lot of people, especially people who are new
<v Speaker 2>to gardening, they're buying this container at the garden center
<v Speaker 2>a store and they're thinking, okay, well, I'm ready to go.
<v Speaker 2>They don't realize, you know, they don't print on the
<v Speaker 2>bottom of the container like drill out holes or anything,
<v Speaker 2>and they expect you to just know this. And this
<v Speaker 2>is super crucial. You cannot grow in a container without
<v Speaker 2>a drainage hole unless you're growing a water garden, and
<v Speaker 2>you will have a water garden like it or not.
<v Speaker 2>If you're growing a container without a drainage hole.
<v Speaker 1>With plastic pots, you'll see an area where you can
<v Speaker 1>pop out the open up the drainage hole with a screwdriver.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, so important and a captain obvious statement. Larger
<v Speaker 1>containers hold more soil. But that's significant because usually the
<v Speaker 1>more soil the better. At least your odds of success
<v Speaker 1>are going to increase. But still, drainage is important. Potting
<v Speaker 1>soil is expensive, and I can show you the Dutch
<v Speaker 1>side of me. With smaller pots, I won't reuse the soil,
<v Speaker 1>I'll dump it out. But in larger pots. I'll amend
<v Speaker 1>the soil and try and get two to three years
<v Speaker 1>out of it. But that's just the Dutch side of me.
<v Speaker 1>And then you have all these people who dummy up
<v Speaker 1>the bottom of a container using styrofoam balls or broken pots.
<v Speaker 1>One thing through the years that I've seen a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people use are those pool noodles. Oh yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>in the bottom of a big pot, so that you
<v Speaker 1>don't have to invest as much in soil, but don't
<v Speaker 1>go cheap on the soil.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, I agree. I am a huge proponent
<v Speaker 2>of reusing potting soil, not the least bit Dutch, but
<v Speaker 2>for me, it really is from an environmental reuse standpoint.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I don't want to throw all that away
<v Speaker 2>because that's a problem and it is organic matter and
<v Speaker 2>it will eventually decompose. But I'm going to conserve my
<v Speaker 2>investment in that material. I'm going to reuse it. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I just dump it all out. I stir in, mix
<v Speaker 2>in a bunch of bags of compost or compost a
<v Speaker 2>maneure or anything like that to add some nice rich
<v Speaker 2>organic matter back in and to stretch it. Because I
<v Speaker 2>don't know about you, but somehow every year I have
<v Speaker 2>more containers. I don't even buy more containers.
<v Speaker 1>They grow.
<v Speaker 2>They grow. Yeah, Like, I don't even say, Okay, I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to get more containers. I just sort of end
<v Speaker 2>up with more containers, you know. Like this year, I'm
<v Speaker 2>doing something different. I am using some hanging baskets on
<v Speaker 2>the corner of my vegetable garden. I'm fixing them somehow.
<v Speaker 2>Don't ask me how, because I haven't figured this out yet,
<v Speaker 2>but I will to the top of the posts of
<v Speaker 2>the vegetable garden and I'm planting them with nasturtiums to
<v Speaker 2>trail down. And I'm super excited about it. But hey,
<v Speaker 2>guess what, that's four more big containers I know I
<v Speaker 2>have to fill. So it's important to me to stretch.
<v Speaker 1>That the things we pot up with, right, Yeah, exactly. Wow. Well,
<v Speaker 1>coming up in segment four, we'll talk about some combinations
<v Speaker 1>some favorite plants for containers. Let me end this segment
<v Speaker 1>with the limb a rick. You're putting plants on a pedestal.
<v Speaker 1>It's the pride cometh before the Fall Limb a Rick
<v Speaker 1>or the continued Adventures of Old ned Old Neds Gardening
<v Speaker 1>skills are self taught. He diligently works his plot. Although
<v Speaker 1>you may scoff old Ned's now a show off as
<v Speaker 1>his plantings have gone to pot. Aside from his plot
<v Speaker 1>that is edible, he has floral pots that are incredible.
<v Speaker 1>Come here, look see Old neds become artsy putting all
<v Speaker 1>his plants on a pedestal. To his neighbors. He's an entertainer.
<v Speaker 1>Their amusement is a no brainer, because when unrehearsed, he
<v Speaker 1>trips falls head first in the center of his container.
<v Speaker 1>I'll have to talk about broken pots in segment for two.
<v Speaker 1>I've seen many of them in my day. Coming up next,
<v Speaker 1>plants on trial. That's next here on the Gardening Simplified.
<v Speaker 2>Show, beautify your home and community with proven Winn's Color
<v Speaker 2>Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
<v Speaker 2>varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrub or evergreen
<v Speaker 2>for every taste and every space. Just look for the
<v Speaker 2>distinctive white container your local garden center or learn more
<v Speaker 2>at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. You're Reading's Gardening friends,
<v Speaker 2>and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we
<v Speaker 2>were talking all about containers. Just in time for Mother's Day,
<v Speaker 2>partly because mom loves a container, and you can, of
<v Speaker 2>course buy her a ready made container. You can plant
<v Speaker 2>up your own container for her with your specially selected
<v Speaker 2>container and plants. Hanging basket is also a container. But
<v Speaker 2>whatever you're doing. You know, when we were on break
<v Speaker 2>just a moment ago, Adriana made an excellent point that
<v Speaker 2>I know a lot of the ladies in the audience
<v Speaker 2>will appreciate. She said that a container without a drainage
<v Speaker 2>hole is like pants with fake or no pockets. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, we can't have that anymore, Like I mean,
<v Speaker 2>we boycott those things. So it's the same way, like
<v Speaker 2>you know, you can have a little container water garden,
<v Speaker 2>but you do have to realize, no, there's no amount
<v Speaker 2>of broken pottery shards, there's no amount of pool noodles,
<v Speaker 2>milk cartons, who knows what that You can put in
<v Speaker 2>the bottom of a ceramic pot with no drainage and
<v Speaker 2>make it suitable for anything but plants that love money.
<v Speaker 2>So let's just get that out of the way right now.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm a huge container gardener. I love it. I'm
<v Speaker 2>like I said, I mostly grow edibles or you know,
<v Speaker 2>hummingbird plants in my containers because they're around me and
<v Speaker 2>use the ground for other things. But we hear from
<v Speaker 2>so many people here at priven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs
<v Speaker 2>about can I grow X in a container? And you know, hey,
<v Speaker 2>we do our jobs. We sit there, we talk about
<v Speaker 2>our plants on social media, and you know, we have
<v Speaker 2>our ads that a lot of our listeners have probably seen.
<v Speaker 2>And I know they're doing their job because then people,
<v Speaker 2>you know, write to us and say, oh, gee, I
<v Speaker 2>saw this at it looks really great. I want this plant.
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to make beds. I maybe don't have
<v Speaker 2>space for any more beds, but I really really want
<v Speaker 2>this plant. And so the container is kind of the
<v Speaker 2>natural choice for those of us who have maybe maxed
<v Speaker 2>out ter space or are just looking to you know,
<v Speaker 2>try something out or want something decorative.
<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately, there's so many great choices, Stacey. Even if you
<v Speaker 1>look at a category like perennials, the Hugh Curros, the Tirrellas,
<v Speaker 1>the Virginia small hostas, all of those plants are fabulous
<v Speaker 1>in containers.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I mean, the simple fact is when people say
<v Speaker 2>can I grow X in a container? The answer is
<v Speaker 2>pretty much always yes.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, there are really very few things that you
<v Speaker 2>can't grow in a container as long as you have
<v Speaker 2>reasonable expectations of what the plant is going to look
<v Speaker 2>like and do, and that you consider the conditions that
<v Speaker 2>you have for the plant to grow in. That's really
<v Speaker 2>the key here.
<v Speaker 1>Now.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I've used this example over and over on
<v Speaker 2>the show, but I really think it's so vivid. A
<v Speaker 2>ginko tree in nature will reach up to one hundred
<v Speaker 2>feet at least fifty I mean, they're massive trees right right,
<v Speaker 2>and yet you will very often see ginkos as a
<v Speaker 2>bone side tree. So if you can take a one
<v Speaker 2>hundred foot tall ginko tree and cram it into a
<v Speaker 2>bone side container that's like this big, you know, like
<v Speaker 2>the size of like a jewelry box, then yes, of
<v Speaker 2>course you can grow a hydrangea or whatever in a container,
<v Speaker 2>but you have to understand that it is going to
<v Speaker 2>have a dwarfing effect on any of these plants. So
<v Speaker 2>the example in the bone side is that if you
<v Speaker 2>restrict a plant's root room, which is what's going to
<v Speaker 2>happen when it's being grown in a container, it will
<v Speaker 2>respond by restricting top growth. So that is what kind
<v Speaker 2>of makes all of this possible. So you do have
<v Speaker 2>to realize let's just say that what you want to
<v Speaker 2>grow in a container is an arborviding. You want to
<v Speaker 2>have like a little container privacy hedge because you have
<v Speaker 2>a condo or an apartment or something like that. Well,
<v Speaker 2>you know, you may look at say green giant arborviting.
<v Speaker 2>You know, one of the most popular arborvids out there
<v Speaker 2>is not going to be a giant for you. It
<v Speaker 2>might reach you know, five seven feet depending on the
<v Speaker 2>size that you put in it. So you need to
<v Speaker 2>have those reasonable expectations. And you know, speaking of expectations,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I laid out what the plant on
<v Speaker 2>trial today is.
<v Speaker 1>No, you haven't yet.
<v Speaker 2>The plant on trial today is shrubs and containers. Oh
<v Speaker 2>and what you need to know what makes a shrub
<v Speaker 2>or a perennial because really all of these things that
<v Speaker 2>I'm about to say translate just as well for perennials
<v Speaker 2>and even for trees.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, people are more willing to take that risk today. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>and then you have all these new cultivars available also,
<v Speaker 1>you know, cascading hydranges. Yeah, I think that they have revolutionized.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of Mother's Day, the whole Mother's Day market, Oh.
<v Speaker 2>My gosh, they have, I you know, we have really
<v Speaker 2>We knew they were amazing plants when we saw them
<v Speaker 2>the very trail broadcascad hydrangeas years ago, and we were
<v Speaker 2>so excited to be able to bring them to the US.
<v Speaker 2>But they have just taken off and just have a
<v Speaker 2>life of their own and are so beautiful and so
<v Speaker 2>popular and are really abundant right now in garden centers.
<v Speaker 2>So anyway, so you can grow, yes, almost any perennial
<v Speaker 2>or shrub in a container, as long as you have
<v Speaker 2>reasonable expectations and as long as you have the right conditions. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I do want to get this out of the way first.
<v Speaker 2>A couple of plants that generally don't make a great
<v Speaker 2>choice in containers are those that are very prone to
<v Speaker 2>producing runners. Runners and suckering plants generally don't grow well
<v Speaker 2>in a container. And any fellow herb gardener who has
<v Speaker 2>gotten the apparently brilliant idea to just say, well, I'll
<v Speaker 2>control my mint by growing in a container, the mint's
<v Speaker 2>like not. Uh, mint does not grow well in a container,
<v Speaker 2>goes way too well in the ground because it does
<v Speaker 2>have that suckering running. But if you try to restrict
<v Speaker 2>mint to a container, it's going to be like, nope,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not growing at all. There is no middle ground
<v Speaker 2>for me. It's all or nothing. And that's true of
<v Speaker 2>certain shrubs and perennials that are again really really known
<v Speaker 2>to sucker. So I'm thinking of things like maybe idea,
<v Speaker 2>which is a suckering shrub, anything like that that's kind
<v Speaker 2>of really reproducing our erronia would be another option. So
<v Speaker 2>you do want to kind of rule those out, but
<v Speaker 2>really just about anything else. So whether people think that
<v Speaker 2>if you live in a cold climate, a shrub or
<v Speaker 2>perennial's ability to withstand winter cold is the single biggest consideration.
<v Speaker 1>Which is true because we have the root system above ground.
<v Speaker 2>That is true. But I have to say, in my
<v Speaker 2>many years when I was a rooftop gardener, all we
<v Speaker 2>did was containers. I mean true, they were massive containers.
<v Speaker 2>They weren't like you know, the home containers. I have
<v Speaker 2>seen far less damage from exposure to cold around those
<v Speaker 2>roots than from poor drainage. Again, I would agree, and
<v Speaker 2>it's really poor drainage during periods of cold weather that
<v Speaker 2>are going to be especially detrimental to plants growing in
<v Speaker 2>a container. And I've talked about this before. But really
<v Speaker 2>what happens is we have this ice cube effect in
<v Speaker 2>a container. If we live in a cold climate, the
<v Speaker 2>whole volume of the container freezes, and then when spring
<v Speaker 2>comes and it starts to thaw, it thaws from the
<v Speaker 2>outside in. So the weather's starting to get warmer, it's
<v Speaker 2>not snowing anymore, it's raining, and you have this container
<v Speaker 2>that has like, you know, maybe two inches of thaw
<v Speaker 2>around the outside and a big old ice cube in
<v Speaker 2>the center, and the water's not getting through that ice cube,
<v Speaker 2>and that really causes it to back up. So I
<v Speaker 2>think the bigger consideration here is a plant's ability to
<v Speaker 2>withstand challenging conditions. And there are a number of plants
<v Speaker 2>that we already know can withstand really really challenging conditions.
<v Speaker 2>So it's not so much about, oh, you know, there
<v Speaker 2>is the sort of old adage that you pick a
<v Speaker 2>plant for a container that's two zones hardier than the
<v Speaker 2>one that you're in. I think if you do that,
<v Speaker 2>you are depriving yourself of so many potential options, because really,
<v Speaker 2>again it's not usually the cold. It really is usually
<v Speaker 2>that that water freezing up size is the other one. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I will say, if you're growing most perennials or shrubs
<v Speaker 2>unless they are a very dwarf variety, you are looking
<v Speaker 2>for containers that are probably in the sixteen inch plus range.
<v Speaker 1>Sixteen at a minimum in mild.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I agree, at a minimum, and even then you
<v Speaker 2>know it's going to stay pretty small. The reason that
<v Speaker 2>you want this size, even though I've just made the
<v Speaker 2>example about the bone size, is because what you don't
<v Speaker 2>know about growing bone size is that bone size growers
<v Speaker 2>water their plants like three times a day. It is
<v Speaker 2>not a set it and forget it type of situation.
<v Speaker 2>And most of us, when it comes to growing shrubs
<v Speaker 2>and trees and perennials in our gardens, are not going
<v Speaker 2>to be willing to give that kind of water. So
<v Speaker 2>when we, you know, try to grow a shrub, perennilar
<v Speaker 2>tree in a container that's too small, we are making
<v Speaker 2>a watering nightmare for ourselves because there is simply not
<v Speaker 2>enough volume of soil to support the water needs to
<v Speaker 2>hold onto the water needs for the roots. And in fact,
<v Speaker 2>that is one of the signs if you have a
<v Speaker 2>really difficult time keeping your container adequately watered, one of
<v Speaker 2>the signs that it's time to move it to a
<v Speaker 2>bigger container to take it out and root print it
<v Speaker 2>and put it back in that container or move it
<v Speaker 2>out into the landscape. So really we're not talking about
<v Speaker 2>what's possible, we're talking about what is feasible for most
<v Speaker 2>of us who live in the modern day world and
<v Speaker 2>don't devote ourselves to watering, you know, a fifty year
<v Speaker 2>old bone side. We just want a nice shrub and
<v Speaker 2>a container to enjoy on our patio. So we are
<v Speaker 2>looking at bigger containers. Yet sixteen inch, I would say,
<v Speaker 2>is a bare minimum. You don't have to go to
<v Speaker 2>like one of those huge, massive, like concrete municipal answers
<v Speaker 2>that your city has, you know, in the park. But
<v Speaker 2>I would say you're looking probably more in the twenty
<v Speaker 2>to twenty six inch range for the most part, to
<v Speaker 2>really let the plant come into its own and to
<v Speaker 2>be decorative. And that is the other consideration is, you know,
<v Speaker 2>since you are devoting this real estate and this money,
<v Speaker 2>you know, with the container and the soil and the
<v Speaker 2>care and all of that, is the plant actually decorative
<v Speaker 2>enough to merit this place, to merit this real estate.
<v Speaker 2>And that's a difficult question to answer because we all
<v Speaker 2>have our own you know, versions of that, and if
<v Speaker 2>we live in an apartment or a condo or something
<v Speaker 2>like that, we might say, well, this is worth it
<v Speaker 2>because this is the only way I can grow, say
<v Speaker 2>a lilac.
<v Speaker 1>Right. The advantage of annual containers is we're pretty well
<v Speaker 1>assured they're going to be blooming their heads off exactly
<v Speaker 1>all season long. So as far as the size of
<v Speaker 1>that container is concerned, Stacy, I'd leave a little room
<v Speaker 1>for some mulch at the base too.
<v Speaker 2>Malta is going to be your BFF as a container grower,
<v Speaker 2>because you want to protect that surface and minimize water
<v Speaker 2>are evaporating from it. So do consider those decorative issues.
<v Speaker 2>Is this plant giving you enough for what you have
<v Speaker 2>to give it? And you know, there's a couple ways
<v Speaker 2>around that. I want to say, just before we take
<v Speaker 2>a break. You can mix it with annuals. If it's
<v Speaker 2>a big enough container, you can plant annuals around the
<v Speaker 2>size to kind of judge things up a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>And especially if it's an evergreen, you can also think
<v Speaker 2>about putting lights on it, which might be a really
<v Speaker 2>really nice thing to do if you are an apartment
<v Speaker 2>or condo and need that little extra atmosphere so you
<v Speaker 2>know we're always looking at how we can make again
<v Speaker 2>that payoff worth our investment. So there is some food
<v Speaker 2>for thought on shrubs, perennials and trees in a container.
<v Speaker 2>We are going to take a little break when we
<v Speaker 2>come back. We're opening up the mail bags, so police say.
<v Speaker 2>Teamed at Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs, we know that
<v Speaker 2>a better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team
<v Speaker 2>of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs
<v Speaker 2>and evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they
<v Speaker 2>outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful
<v Speaker 2>shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style.
<v Speaker 2>Look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container
<v Speaker 2>at your local garden center, or learn more at proven
<v Speaker 2>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome
<v Speaker 2>back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're talking all
<v Speaker 2>about containers, but taking a brief respite from that to
<v Speaker 2>answer your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums. And I know
<v Speaker 2>they are abundant as the season comes on and you
<v Speaker 2>know most of us have probably done our garden cleanup
<v Speaker 2>and I'm wondering is this coming back? Is this not
<v Speaker 2>coming back? And I have to say, even though spring
<v Speaker 2>was pretty early for us here in West Michigan, a
<v Speaker 2>lot of things are definitely taking their sweet time.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, and a lot of things were knocked back
<v Speaker 1>by what I'm gonna call a polar vortex winter. So
<v Speaker 1>same thing in my landscape, a little.
<v Speaker 2>Slow out of the yeah, So don't panic if certain
<v Speaker 2>things in your landscape aren't showing signs of life just yet.
<v Speaker 2>Had a warm spring at first, and it's not being
<v Speaker 2>kind of cool for all.
<v Speaker 1>The winter's back, Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Not quite winter, but you know it's it's definitely cool
<v Speaker 2>and slow. So patience, as always is what we need
<v Speaker 2>as gardeners, even though it's a lot easier to recommend
<v Speaker 2>to you than to follow myself. So if you have
<v Speaker 2>a gardening question for us, you are always welcome to
<v Speaker 2>reach out to us. Our website is Gardening Simplified on
<v Speaker 2>air dot com. There is a contact form right there
<v Speaker 2>that you can use to send us an email. And
<v Speaker 2>please do be aware that, of course we can't answer
<v Speaker 2>all of your questions and only some are suitable for
<v Speaker 2>air because we have such limited time which I am
<v Speaker 2>now currently taking up by talking to you about how
<v Speaker 2>we have limited time, but we do care about your success,
<v Speaker 2>and so you can also reach out to us at Provenwinters,
<v Speaker 2>color Choice dot com and one of our horticultures will
<v Speaker 2>get you a personalized response very quickly because we do
<v Speaker 2>care very much about your gardening success. So, Rick, what
<v Speaker 2>do we got in the mail bag?
<v Speaker 1>Judy rights to us. I planted two El Nino chetalpas.
<v Speaker 1>This will be their third season. One has a full
<v Speaker 1>vay shape, the other one is just one stalk about
<v Speaker 1>eight feet tall. A few leaves at the top is
<v Speaker 1>all it's ever done. I feel like I need to
<v Speaker 1>print it, but would love some instruction. I'm in the
<v Speaker 1>Texas Hill Country, Zone eight B. I hope you can
<v Speaker 1>see the leaves at the tip.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so she sent a picture. So what Judy has
<v Speaker 2>here is I'm guessing. Because these plants are so uneven
<v Speaker 2>in the way that they're growing, I believe that she
<v Speaker 2>probably started with two small mail order plants rather than
<v Speaker 2>plants from the garden center. And when you buy the
<v Speaker 2>small one court premium Winer's Colored Choice shrubs via mail order,
<v Speaker 2>you're getting a plant that basically we would have sent
<v Speaker 2>to a grower for that grower to grow on in
<v Speaker 2>trim multiple times, whereas if you buy it the garden center,
<v Speaker 2>that work is already done. You have a nice full plant.
<v Speaker 2>Whereas so if you're buying the small ones online you
<v Speaker 2>need to put a little bit of that work in yourself.
<v Speaker 2>And what happens when a grower trains a plant or
<v Speaker 2>grows a plant for sale, they're trimming it multiple times.
<v Speaker 2>Many of them are trimming it through the season as
<v Speaker 2>many times as the growth will allow. Why because when
<v Speaker 2>you trim a plant, when you take off that top,
<v Speaker 2>it branches out below it, and that's what gives you
<v Speaker 2>that nice full look. So I think that what happened
<v Speaker 2>with Judy's here is that it just didn't get trimmed,
<v Speaker 2>and so you have one main growth. They're just getting
<v Speaker 2>taller and taller and taller, and it's not allowing any
<v Speaker 2>of that side or lower growth to come out and
<v Speaker 2>give you that nice full plant. Well, fortunately, you really
<v Speaker 2>cannot go wrong pruiting on the inyo chatalpa. This thing
<v Speaker 2>is a beast. So despite the fact that it's now
<v Speaker 2>made and you are in a warm climate, if it's blooming,
<v Speaker 2>you can wait till it's done blooming to do this.
<v Speaker 2>If it hasn't started blooming yet, you can do it now.
<v Speaker 2>I would go ahead and shop that eight foot broomstick
<v Speaker 2>down to I don't know, a foot two feet.
<v Speaker 1>I agree have had it with the El Nino in
<v Speaker 1>my yard. I have pruned it and it's really nicely branched. Now.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's all about taking out that terminal bud
<v Speaker 1>stacey and forcing the plant to think to grow.
<v Speaker 2>Awards absolutely so it will resolve itself very quickly once
<v Speaker 2>you do that pruning. But yeah, you have to remove
<v Speaker 2>that terminal bud. And again this is just a matter
<v Speaker 2>of starting with a smaller plant versus one that the
<v Speaker 2>growers have pruned. And for those of you who have
<v Speaker 2>El Nino that are maybe just growing just fine, you
<v Speaker 2>never have to worry about whacking this plant back. It
<v Speaker 2>is such a beast. It can easily withstand super heavy pruning.
<v Speaker 2>The only thing you want to watch out for, of course,
<v Speaker 2>is if it has flower buds. You want to enjoy
<v Speaker 2>those flower buds and the fabulous fragrance rather than just
<v Speaker 2>cut them off. But even if you're pruning this in
<v Speaker 2>the summer, as long as it's not too late in
<v Speaker 2>the summer will recover. It will be just fine. This
<v Speaker 2>plant can absolutely take it.
<v Speaker 1>You bet prone aggressively. Sandy writes, Hi, there, I just
<v Speaker 1>purchased a two gallon pot fairy trail Bride hydrangen, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm wondering if the foliage will get darker as it
<v Speaker 1>matures or with more sun. The one I bought has
<v Speaker 1>medium to light green foliage. And as I mentioned Stacey,
<v Speaker 1>in the greenhouse this spring, I've seen that cascade hydranges. Boy,
<v Speaker 1>they're all the things.
<v Speaker 2>They are, and they are so beautiful. And it's not
<v Speaker 2>totally unusual for a plant after it's newly purchased to
<v Speaker 2>have foliage that isn't the same as when it's outdoors.
<v Speaker 2>When plants are grown in greenhouse conditions what we call
<v Speaker 2>in the industry grown under polly. That blocks out some
<v Speaker 2>of the wavelengths of the sun's light, and very often
<v Speaker 2>the result is that the foliage color is not as
<v Speaker 2>full and as rich as it would be when it
<v Speaker 2>has the full UV spectrum once it is outdoors. So
<v Speaker 2>typically what's going to happen here is that once you
<v Speaker 2>get that plant outside in some full sunlight, it will
<v Speaker 2>naturally green up as it increases its chlorophyll production. If
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't, it could be you know, obviously it's a
<v Speaker 2>lot of a plant's energy to bloom as much as
<v Speaker 2>a fairy trail bride cascade hydrangea does, So it could
<v Speaker 2>be that it could use a little bit of a
<v Speaker 2>fertilizer just to green up, even though you know, undermost conditions,
<v Speaker 2>the growers will have fertilized this thing, you know, amply.
<v Speaker 2>But I also wanted to mention this in terms of
<v Speaker 2>people who are at garden centers right now and are
<v Speaker 2>looking at plants that have either purple or yellow or
<v Speaker 2>variegated foliage, and you know, they're maybe looking at the
<v Speaker 2>plant tag and saying, well, shoot, this says that it
<v Speaker 2>has purple foliage, and the plant in front of me
<v Speaker 2>here is kind of green. Now, this happens a lot.
<v Speaker 2>One plant that comes to mind where I've seen this
<v Speaker 2>happen very often is black lace elderberry, one of our
<v Speaker 2>best sellers. All of these plants, again, they can't fully
<v Speaker 2>produce all of those nice pigments indoors when they're being
<v Speaker 2>grown by the grower. Even if they're not indoors indoors
<v Speaker 2>they're in a quantit hut. They have plastic over them.
<v Speaker 2>That does reduce their ability to produce those pigments. So
<v Speaker 2>what you see in the garden center is not necessarily incorrect.
<v Speaker 2>It does not mean that it's a dud, and it's
<v Speaker 2>not going to color up once it's in your landscape.
<v Speaker 2>It just means that it needs the sun. Also very
<v Speaker 2>true if you're ordering by mail, because a couple days
<v Speaker 2>in a box, in a closed off box before it
<v Speaker 2>reaches you is also going to degrade those pigments. So
<v Speaker 2>not to worry. Get it outside in the full sun,
<v Speaker 2>and within weeks everything will return to exactly what you expect.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's not.
<v Speaker 1>A pigment of your imagination. Great share rights to us.
<v Speaker 1>What is going on with these arborviti? Why all of them?
<v Speaker 1>Are they saveable?
<v Speaker 2>Yes? So for our YouTube viewers you're looking at this.
<v Speaker 2>For our non YouTube viewers, what we're talking about is
<v Speaker 2>a row of arborvid looks like mushrooms, very very large
<v Speaker 2>overgrown mushrooms.
<v Speaker 1>They're very interesting.
<v Speaker 2>They're very interesting. So the top is green and kind
<v Speaker 2>of mushroom shaped, and then the bottom is brown and
<v Speaker 2>just like a stem. And what you have seen their
<v Speaker 2>share is complements of the deer that is a deer
<v Speaker 2>pruning job on arbor viting.
<v Speaker 1>And I see them everywhere. I call them deer topiaries.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great name for them, because that's pretty much
<v Speaker 2>exactly what they are.
<v Speaker 1>We have some people who like that. Look can they
<v Speaker 1>come in the garden center asking, no, you got some
<v Speaker 1>of those deer topiaries? They do not jewel.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't think so. But I'll tell you what. Now
<v Speaker 2>that you're hearing this from us on the Gardening Simplified Show,
<v Speaker 2>you probably will drive around and see these everywhere and
<v Speaker 2>know exactly what has happened. So yeah, what you'll see
<v Speaker 2>is that this happens basically at deer height. They love
<v Speaker 2>arborviti so much that they will just eat everything that
<v Speaker 2>they can possibly reach within raisin and then what they
<v Speaker 2>can't reach grows and is green and is totally unscathed.
<v Speaker 2>Now you're asking are they saveable? Which is a great question,
<v Speaker 2>and probably years ago I would have told you no.
<v Speaker 2>But I did see something very interesting happen near me
<v Speaker 2>where we have a lot of deer here in West Michigan.
<v Speaker 2>There is a marina that had a bunch of arbor
<v Speaker 2>idy planted along the road and the deer, of course,
<v Speaker 2>just were destroying them. And for a couple of years
<v Speaker 2>every winter they had a landscape company come out and
<v Speaker 2>wrap them in burlap. And I could not believe, if
<v Speaker 2>I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, how much
<v Speaker 2>they were covered as a result of just being physically
<v Speaker 2>barriered off from the deer. Every spring they would start
<v Speaker 2>to recover, they would grow, and the deer didn't really
<v Speaker 2>bother them so much in the summer when there's of
<v Speaker 2>course plenty of foods elsewhere. Yeah, and they did. They
<v Speaker 2>managed to come back in a way that I that
<v Speaker 2>really truly shocked me. So it is possible, but you
<v Speaker 2>do have to keep up on it, because one year
<v Speaker 2>they didn't call a landscape company and now those harbor
<v Speaker 2>viiety are right back to where they used to be. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>So yes, by covering them, especially in winter. You can
<v Speaker 2>use deer repellent now if you wish, but obviously there's
<v Speaker 2>nothing for them to eat, but cover them in winter
<v Speaker 2>to protect the growth that they're going to be putting
<v Speaker 2>on this spring. In this summer, just some burlapp will
<v Speaker 2>work great. You know deer repellent or you know deer deterrent.
<v Speaker 2>You'll have to keep reapplying through the season so that
<v Speaker 2>burlap seem to work great. Wrap it around the parts
<v Speaker 2>that they can reach. Do that every year, and yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they absolutely have a chance at returning, although since you
<v Speaker 2>are signing up for a long term maintenance job, you
<v Speaker 2>might also just want to replace them with something that
<v Speaker 2>is deer resistant.
<v Speaker 1>So or enjoy the topiaries and accept compliments on their robust.
<v Speaker 2>Run, or that we're going to take a little break
<v Speaker 2>when we come back. We're continuing our conversation on container growing,
<v Speaker 2>so please see didn't Thanks for listening to the Gardening
<v Speaker 2>Simplified podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
<v Speaker 2>Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and
<v Speaker 2>tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more
<v Speaker 2>at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. As we talk
<v Speaker 1>about planting up your containers, Stacey, I wanted to mention
<v Speaker 1>right off the bat here that well, some food for thought,
<v Speaker 1>feed your containers. That's my opinion. Whenever I plant up
<v Speaker 1>my containers, I'll use a granular fertilizer when I put
<v Speaker 1>the plants in the ground, then I supplement with a
<v Speaker 1>water soluble fertilizer. I love the proven Winners fertilizers because
<v Speaker 1>they have not only the major nutrients in them, but
<v Speaker 1>they have the micro nutrients. So I'll feed with granular
<v Speaker 1>at the outset and then supplement with water soluble. I
<v Speaker 1>also love to try to restore or claim broken pot
<v Speaker 1>I'll sink broken pots into the ground and use them
<v Speaker 1>as containers as such, or if I have an old,
<v Speaker 1>worn out container like I do right now, a large
<v Speaker 1>square pot it's kind of falling apart, I go to
<v Speaker 1>the hardware store or lumber store, pick up some cedar planks,
<v Speaker 1>build a box around it, and I get a few
<v Speaker 1>more years out of it.
<v Speaker 2>Now, from your years in the garden center, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you used to sell a lot of pottery tons, So
<v Speaker 2>like what percentage would arrive damaged?
<v Speaker 1>I would say probably three three four percent arrived damaged.
<v Speaker 1>Then as you process it, you damage some more. And
<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you what, Ceramic pottery can be very very dangerous.
<v Speaker 1>I have seen many injuries and myself cut my hand
<v Speaker 1>on ceramic pottery. Yeah, it's so you have to be
<v Speaker 1>careful in handling it, and not everybody can handle ceramic potter.
<v Speaker 2>Heavy it is. And you know, I always rear gardening
<v Speaker 2>gloves when I'm bringing mine up from the basement to
<v Speaker 2>the upstairs, just so I get that extra little grip,
<v Speaker 2>because that's you know, moving those ceramic pots. It's one
<v Speaker 2>of those things that you think, oh, I got this,
<v Speaker 2>and then you get like halfway from your storage point
<v Speaker 2>to your outdoor destination and you're like, I don't got this.
<v Speaker 1>Drop one on your foot and you're gonna feel it
<v Speaker 1>for a while.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you'll feel the impact in your pocketbook when
<v Speaker 2>you break one of your expensive containers. So they are fragile.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they're beautiful, and I you know, almost all
<v Speaker 2>of my containers are single color ceramic containers. I love it.
<v Speaker 2>But it's interesting to know that, you know, there's that
<v Speaker 2>kind of amount of breakage just you know, just because
<v Speaker 2>they are fragile and they move around.
<v Speaker 1>They're heavy and fragile.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, not a great combination.
<v Speaker 1>That's why I keep a two wheel cart in my shed.
<v Speaker 1>Some people would refer to it as a dolly to
<v Speaker 1>be able to move stuff like that around, especially as
<v Speaker 1>I get older and really don't care to try and
<v Speaker 1>impress anyone that I can pick that. Now we talked
<v Speaker 1>about thriller, filler, spiller. Good thriller choices include, in my opinion,
<v Speaker 1>tall grasses like the fountain grass, skyrocket. I love using skyrocket,
<v Speaker 1>two can cannas, Drsina plants or cordellines. I love anything
<v Speaker 1>that's tropical as my thriller. In the center of a
<v Speaker 1>container tall Salvius, meteor shower, verbina, some shrubs, maybe a
<v Speaker 1>shrub like Bobo Bobo.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, I was. I was going to make
<v Speaker 2>Bobo the plant on trial today because years ago, many
<v Speaker 2>many years ago, when I was first started here, when
<v Speaker 2>Bobo first came out, we had a very very large
<v Speaker 2>container with a Bobo Hydrangea in it, planted with Vista
<v Speaker 2>supertunia vista bubblegum around it. And man, the people were
<v Speaker 2>just like, I want to know exactly how to do
<v Speaker 2>this exact container. People just absolutely loved it.
<v Speaker 1>Another thriller. I love Alocasia emerald Isle. That may be
<v Speaker 1>my favorite. This one's fabulous and I can grow it
<v Speaker 1>in shade or sun hibiscus. You know, you could consider the.
<v Speaker 2>Hollywood Hollywood hibsius.
<v Speaker 1>Such make a great thrillers.
<v Speaker 2>Such a great container plant, especially for those of us
<v Speaker 2>in cold climates. Who that is really our only way
<v Speaker 2>to grow it. But even if you live in a
<v Speaker 2>warm climate and you're just planting on your patio, it
<v Speaker 2>makes a great choice there because these things bloom all
<v Speaker 2>summer long with big, super colorful flowers that stick straight
<v Speaker 2>out rather than hang down, so you can really enjoy
<v Speaker 2>that face, a beautiful face of the hibiscus. You know,
<v Speaker 2>even if I could grow tropical hibiscus in a landscape,
<v Speaker 2>I think I would still grow it in a container. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so I could engage with it more and really enjoy
<v Speaker 2>those flowers.
<v Speaker 1>Agree, majesty palm or a phoenix, Robellini palm, date palm,
<v Speaker 1>love palms as thrillers and containers vines, especially if you
<v Speaker 1>have a support in the center so that the vine
<v Speaker 1>can go vertical. And we haven't mentioned yet to day
<v Speaker 1>crossbine dressed to thrill that maybe that's something.
<v Speaker 2>That could be that could be an interesting choice for sure.
<v Speaker 1>Graceful grasses prints tut the dwarf Egyptian papyrus. That's a
<v Speaker 1>great one too.
<v Speaker 2>Now that's one that you could grow in a container with.
<v Speaker 1>No draak, no drainage holes.
<v Speaker 2>You could So we have found you've found a plant here.
<v Speaker 2>If you have one of those fabulous containers with no
<v Speaker 2>drainage holes and you don't want to drill them, which
<v Speaker 2>you probably don't want to drill an a ceramic container anyway,
<v Speaker 2>any of the proven winners tut papyrus will work great
<v Speaker 2>in that container.
<v Speaker 1>They'll love it.
<v Speaker 2>Just make sure your neighbors aren't outside when you empty
<v Speaker 2>that container in the fall, because that soil is going
<v Speaker 2>to be pretty darn smelly. That can smell it already
<v Speaker 2>and too unfortunately.
<v Speaker 1>So you have the thrillers in the center, then we
<v Speaker 1>work our way to the outside with the fillers. The
<v Speaker 1>supporting cast fillers are the workhorses of your container. They're
<v Speaker 1>usually mounding plants that fill in the space around your
<v Speaker 1>thriller create a full, lush look. And I had mentioned
<v Speaker 1>perennials earlier, like hostas or hu karas. So many great
<v Speaker 1>plants to use as fillers. I like Verbina superbnas, any
<v Speaker 1>of those, the bidens or the mini vista petunias, they're
<v Speaker 1>fabulous fillers. Truffala, pink gamprina is great. All of those
<v Speaker 1>would provide great fillers. But the idea is to give
<v Speaker 1>the container some GRAVI toss by filling in around the
<v Speaker 1>thriller that's planted in the center, and then as we
<v Speaker 1>work our way to the outside, we have spillers or trailers,
<v Speaker 1>cascading plants that drape over the edge of your container,
<v Speaker 1>softening the look and adding some movement. We had a
<v Speaker 1>listener to the show, I think earlier this year what
<v Speaker 1>was at Upstate New York that had those super tall containers.
<v Speaker 1>And if you have a tall container, boy, the spiller
<v Speaker 1>is super important. It's a similar concept to the edging
<v Speaker 1>or edger that you would lose you use in a landscape.
<v Speaker 1>If you do it right, it tends to pull the
<v Speaker 1>whole thing together. Lobularia And of course one of the
<v Speaker 1>most popular potato vine would be great. And there's a
<v Speaker 1>great new potato vine this year has been selling fabulously
<v Speaker 1>in the greenhouse. I need to have it for my containers.
<v Speaker 1>It's an introduction this year, Sweet Caroline Sweetheart shadow Storm.
<v Speaker 1>It's an ornamental sweet potato. It has the bright green
<v Speaker 1>foliage with super dark foliage. It's real blotchy. Oh.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's really cool too. I really like it.
<v Speaker 2>And it's kind of one of those plants that can
<v Speaker 2>go with just about anything. It's going to be a really,
<v Speaker 2>really nice, versatile plan. I think you.
<v Speaker 1>Bet silver falls dichondra. I love any of the plectranthis.
<v Speaker 1>I love guacamole trailing over the side of a pot,
<v Speaker 1>and I'll add it in a large pot. At one time, Stacy,
<v Speaker 1>I tried oh so easy roses and it actually worked pretty.
<v Speaker 2>Coo oh that's good to know.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so that was fun. You know.
<v Speaker 2>I would also say, as you're putting together your container,
<v Speaker 2>don't judge it right after you plant it. You know,
<v Speaker 2>it takes time for these things to knit together. And
<v Speaker 2>if you have just finished your plant and your container
<v Speaker 2>and you step back and you go, eh, give it time,
<v Speaker 2>it's not you. It takes time for your vision to
<v Speaker 2>come to fruition. And if you're thinking of some amazingly
<v Speaker 2>fabulous container that you've seen in the past, well chances
<v Speaker 2>are you saw that at peak later on in the
<v Speaker 2>summer when everything grew together. So give things a chance
<v Speaker 2>to grow. You can always make changes later, but don't
<v Speaker 2>judge it based on you know, when you just got
<v Speaker 2>those you know, three or five little tiny plants in
<v Speaker 2>the container and you see all that soil and you're like,
<v Speaker 2>this is never gonna work. It will work.
<v Speaker 1>Just have fi will work. Don't judge your book by
<v Speaker 1>its cover. I do have to mention again, I see
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people making the mistake with containers that
<v Speaker 1>they don't know how to water, and so they just
<v Speaker 1>decide to water every day just a little bit. The
<v Speaker 1>soil in the upper profile is soaking wet, and the
<v Speaker 1>soil down below is dust dry. When you water, water thoroughly.
<v Speaker 1>Because we've already covered the drainage whole issue, and bear
<v Speaker 1>in mind that today there are aquapots. There are self
<v Speaker 1>watering pots, wicking pots. These aquapots are very cool, and
<v Speaker 1>we just did a talk this past weekend at the
<v Speaker 1>Greenhouse and Stacy a lot of people were interested in
<v Speaker 1>the features of an aqua pot and how it makes
<v Speaker 1>watering easier.
<v Speaker 2>Right. The cool thing about the aquapots is you can
<v Speaker 2>get the inserts to go in any container exactly. You
<v Speaker 2>don't just have to already have a self watering container.
<v Speaker 2>But there are a number of self watering containers out there.
<v Speaker 2>The thing that no one tells you about self watering containers,
<v Speaker 2>you do have to water them conventionally until the roots
<v Speaker 2>go down deep enough for them wicking to actually have
<v Speaker 2>an effect, because the wicking does not just start to
<v Speaker 2>go up where the roots are after you've just planted.
<v Speaker 2>So the general guideline if you're planting into a self
<v Speaker 2>watering container, you want to do probably about six weeks
<v Speaker 2>of conventional watering till the roots really start going and
<v Speaker 2>get down enough into the soil matrix that that self
<v Speaker 2>watering feature will actually work. So don't give up hope
<v Speaker 2>too early and say hey, this is in self watering
<v Speaker 2>at all. Need to have roots in place before it
<v Speaker 2>can actually self water.
<v Speaker 1>It's important to note and of course bear in mind
<v Speaker 1>a Mother's Day weekend, a lot of people will be
<v Speaker 1>getting ten inch hanging baskets, those common ten inch smaller baskets.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, greenhouses and garden centers have beautiful, big hanging
<v Speaker 1>baskets that you can purchase, wonderful, enjoy it, Mom will
<v Speaker 1>love it. But if you get one of those smaller ones,
<v Speaker 1>just bear in mind odds are it's not going to
<v Speaker 1>make it through the summer and it's well, there's nothing
<v Speaker 1>wrong with upsizing it into a larger container because again,
<v Speaker 1>stay the soil mass does matter as we get into
<v Speaker 1>the heat of something.
<v Speaker 2>That makes a huge difference. Well, this was fun, Yes
<v Speaker 2>it was Yeah, did you contain yourself?
<v Speaker 1>A lot of ground to cover. Thanks Stacey, thank you Rick,
<v Speaker 1>Thanks Adrianna, and thanks to you for watching us on YouTube,
<v Speaker 1>downloading our podcast, or listening to the radio version of
<v Speaker 1>our show. Have a great week.