depending how large the basket is. Mine is pretty big, I put empty pots upside down in it about half way up and stuff it with plastic grocery bags in between, it will afford the plants plenty of drainage but before I do all that I use newspaper to line it and the bottom too . I have also used the peanuts from boxes that had breakable items sent to me instead of plastic pots.
That way you will not have to use so much MG but it will still be enough for the plants
This year's containers
oops for some reason it came in twice, sorry
Thanks for the info.... My basket is pretty big also. I will have to be giving that a try!
I also figured out you need to fertilize all summer! I didn't do that the first year and the blooms faded after
6-8wks. Even with those slow-release fertilizer pellets. Now I water with a dilute mix of fertilizer every day.
They bloom all summer now.
I line my moss-lined baskets with plastic bags to keep in the moisture. I have to water once a day as it is!
Love that combo Staceysmom!
Tam
Hi! Maria, we make basket planters for our spring garden sale for Garden Club. We line them with plastic, including reusing the potting soil bags for a few of them and put osmacote in and annuals. I have a potting party on my deck in early may and sometimes a small basket hunting party among the yard sales. I like the vine baskets the best. I get all kinds of baskets for 25-50 cents each. Yours is beautiful.
Staceysmom? is that creeping ficus in your pot with the New Guinea impatiens?
Thanks,
Martha
When lining your baskets with plastic bags do you poke some holes in there for drainage? I know what you mean about watering. I get up an hour earlier every day before work in the summer just to water all my plants so they will not all be drooping by the end of the day.
Martha, that is Creeping Jenny - Goldilocks (lysimachia) in with the impatiens. I loved the contrast in color with the deep color of the New Guinea. It's my hubby's favorite container. He asks me everyday if I have watered it so that it doesn't die. But have yet to see him water it!!
Thanks,
Gay
Tammy, where did you find the great open hand bird bath in the picture of your pink garden? It's such a cool piece!
Did you steal it from the Philadelphia Flower show? LOL
Staceysmom, we did punch drainage holes in the bottom. We designed them to last the summer and if it didn't make it to september, the 25-50 cent baskets meant you could toss the whole thing without a qualm. We forgot to do holes in a couple of small ones and they had to be replanted after when the rainwater forced out the potting soil and floated off some of the plants. But if you forgot, take a barbeque skewer and poke em up from the bottom. That's why the vine baskets are the best, they have space for all this and they last. We got 8.00-15.00 for them; depending on the size and we had one huge basket 3 feet in diameter that we found and planted up and raffled it off.
I think the lysimachia is a beautiful color. Thanks.
Martha
I do not poke holes in the plastic bags in my baskets. But they don't create a perfect
seal anyway so a little leaks out.
And I got the hand at "Pete's Pots" in Quakertown, Pa. They are a wonderful place to
shop for anything cement or clay! Gaudy huge fountains to all sorts of little pots. They've
got peacocks & fancy chickens as well as a nice selection of plants to use in their pots.
If you are ever in the area, its a fun place to shop.
Tam
I do not poke holes either, water always finds a way out unless it is a wheel borrow without holes and whern we had all these monsoons it went out the top including the plants ;-(
We used a new heavy duty plastic drop cloth cut into pieces for the liners. When we forgot to poke holes, the soil washed out part way and a couple of plants floated out. just a couple of holes in the bottom prevented it. We also had the rainiest may on record last year, too. 27 days. so we had to have drainage.
Martha
all my Hostas are in containers...these pics were taken recently
HOSTA HERIFU
HOSTA Ventricosa, Francee, Golden Tiara, Royal Standard, Krossa Regal and Unduluta...
Slyvia - terrific collection! I see a begonia in the background in that last shot?
Do you keep them in the pots year-round?
And I love that pot for Hosta Herifu.
Tam
Sylvia...you must spend a lot of time watering!
Thanks guys!
Tammy thats a Caladium. Yes, I keep them in pots year round, the slugs are too bad. ....that Herifu pot is one of three, a set of canisters I purchased in a dept store, marked down to little or nothing. bought them home and drilled holes in the bottom. :)
Levilyla I do right now, because it so hot. I got a soaker hose going around the courtyard for the perrnials. I plan on installing of those sprinklers for the Hostas.
Sylvia
I love the idea of putting perennials in containers and then moving them to the garden later. I have always used annuals, although I did experiment with a rose in a container this year since the soil where I wanted to put it was so rocky.
Here are my favorite hanging baskets this year. They are blue supertunias, white phlox and marietta (sp?).
Sylvia, It is so nice to see your caladium, since mine is "hibernating". I keep it dry and will try to revive it in August when I hope our Southafrican winter will be over.
Davallia - I'll look forward to seeing your blooms & green when we're all ice & snow here!
Lovely baskets Winging!
Tam
Davallia, I wish I could hibernate Caladiums. I just buy them every year. Winter in August? for real? I wish you could send some of that winter here ... to Texas ... when everything is burning up!
Sylvia
Here are 3 pots of Salvia patens "Blue Angel"
This one's a combo of Heliotrope and Lobelia
Marilyn
more pots, most are with my favorite annual, Salvia
Marilyn
shown on the patio are two pots, with Salvia, a birdbath and a little baby bunny (eating birdfood)
Marilyn
marilyn - it looks so lush with all those pots. I love the blue salvia. My dad is nuts about
the red annual kind.
And the bunny is really cute. They are cute right up until they eat the fresh & ready to open
flower buds. I hope you can keep him full on bird seed!
Thanks for the posting! I love looking at beautifully planted & grown container gardens!
Tam
I am just loving this thread! ... with all the pots I got outside, I never do combos ... except for sedums. I am getting all these great ideas. I have about thirty different mini Hostas that I am going to combine in huge bowls. I want some color running thru them. You guys got any idea for color that would do well in shade?
Sylvia
Everyone's containers are really looking good, I love making up new combos, somehow I'm more daring then in the garden, LOL.
Sylvia - Astilbe have plumes that even when dried (after they bloom, just leave them and they'll turn brown) look lovely. They come in shades of red, white, and pink and have deep green to bronze, nicely cut foliage.
Tammy - Love your containers. What all are the plants you used in the first and next to last ones?
Maria - What is the white-edged plant in the huge basket please?
PraireGirl - first one has four plants: dahlia (yellow w/orange center flower), blackie ipomea, heuchera & calibrachia
The next to last one has a white pelargonium, blackie ipomea, Dichondra argentea Silver Falls, and a white nierembergia (I don't think it was mont blanc but its very similar in habit).
Tam
Thanks Tam - I'm kicking myself in the pants for passing up some choice heuchera this spring. I actually have the blackie ipomoea and calibrachoa of every color in my containers this year, but I've never tried dahlias. When you lift them & the ipomoea, do you put them in peat or what? Do they need to be watered during the winter? Thanks, this hobby of mine is getting expensive, LOL.
Meant to say, love the contrasting black & white colors. I thought it was licorice vine but I guess it wouldn't matter, LOL. Reminds me of something I saw online at BHG last year, black mondo grass and Little Boo white pumpkins in a window box. Refreshingly simple.
I simply clean off the tubers and put them in a box of pine shavings which goes in our cool basement.
They came through the winter beautifully this year.
Tam
Jumping in here kinda late but great containers! Maria I love your planter and Tammy your pink garden is great. Stacysmom, I think yours looks great--looks like you got that one just right to me. Winging your hanging baskets are way ahead of mine--I've just now been able to get ahead of the weeding to start mine....the poor hanging baskets are always last for me!
Sylvia--what can I say you've sold me on giving Hosta's another try! hint, hint, I'd love some of the one in the lower right hand corner at the fall RU. ;)
And I thought I was being brave at going into mints in pots this year...
Debbie :)
Debbie I am lost ... lol Just tell me what you what. I got more Hostas than I know what to do. I am just going thru my inventory and lableing markers and I find that I got doubles of some stuff! I know what, I am going to bring you Stiletto! Its a mini. I dont know why i havent been hanging out over here in the container area, with my hundreds of pots! I am getting so many new ideas, I just need some shade!
Sylvia
I will post pics, every pot I do lately has to have a grass in it. I think I'm addicted. LOL
I know I'm addicted....I can always add more pots but the ones on the back will get no sun at all from Oct-Feb....not many plants like winter shade!
I'm running out of 'ground space' so am expanding 'pot space'...lol
Sylvia-- I'll take a mini, a maxi anything you got.
Debbie
prairie girl, sorry did not get back to you but have not been checking on this thread for a few days. here is the name of that foiliage you asked for
"plrctranthus ciliatus" or vanilla twist
Someone else asked (sorry could not find you) for the name of the small white flower it is
"sutara cordata" or cabana
ty maria.