I hope this is the right spot for this! I have quite a few areas around my porch and yard that are very shady and need some color. My quick and dirty fix for this is impatiens! Yes, I know, I'm the very first person to think of this. Anyway, on to the goods. I have been buying those green plastic hanging bags that are already prefilled with impatiens. I buy them from my local nursery for about $16 each. I buy several. Husband complains. I buy more and try to hide them. :(
So, I found seeds for the impatiens that I want to grow (my color choices were too limited at the nursery last year) and I'm going to start my own. My only problem was finding the bags. I could either find them by the case (do I *really* need 250 of them??) or not all. Well, this morning I found these:
http://www.amazon.com/AFP5-ORIGINAL-Als-Flower-Pouch/dp/B0007LRQT0
For 94 cents and shipping, it ends up being about$1.70 for each bag (I bought 10). I already have several 40 lb bags of potting soil and seeds are fairly inexpensive. I'm not even close to the $150 I had invested last year.
Hope someone else finds this useful.
Michelle
Hanging flower bags
MsKatt, do you have any pictures of the ones you've had before? Someone's kid at work was doing a fundraiser and I spent $15 on one that's supposed to be for strawberries. I was wondering about flowers in there, but I hadn't seen them before.
Please share any info you have about growth in those bags, and pictures would also be great. Do you hang them on the porch rail?
I can relate to hiding things from DH. LOL
This is a pic I took of it about 2 weeks after I hung it up.
http://picasaweb.google.com/michelle.katt/GardenAndIrises/photo#5026374509445979858
I only hung one on that post last summer, but I'm having DH put some hooks up so I can hang three. Then my post will be completely covered in impatiens.
I've found that they need to be watered ALOT. Mine was in a shady spot, but even then I needed to water it almost everyday. They are supposed to be great for strawberries, but I haven't grown anything but impatiens in them.
Michelle
That is a really great price for those. I've seen them offered in the Thompson & Morgan catalog and they even have a section of seeds especially recommended for use with the Flower Pouches. I picked up a couple on clearance at Kmart a few years ago but haven't tried them yet. I live in a hot area and have tons of full sun. I plan to add some of the gel crystal for water retention and some of the coir, coco fiber to help as well. I've seen them offered somewhere with different sizes and varied number of planting holes. Really neat.
I'll have to look for Thompson and Morgan. I mentioned to my MIL that I found the bags and she wants me to order LOTS more so we can hang them on her fenceposts...which are in full sun.
Thanks!
Michelle
Thanks for the photo. Wow! That really looks great! I think I'll try the strawberries I overspent on (for a good cause) this year, see how it goes, and maybe try some flowers next year. I can easily picture those over my porch railing.
I wish I had a later in the season photo, they get quite floriferous!
I saw these when I was ordering from Blooming Bulbs but they're higher priced:
http://www.bloomingbulb.com/CartBulbs.asp?Category=115
I received mine as a gift last Mother's Day and would like to replant it this year. It did need constant watering so I'd also use the gel crystals. I did like the ones that straddle a fence - neat!
I like the straddle containers. I need several for the porch, but I thought maybe the bags were a better idea since I have so much porch. Those straddle things are expensive. See what I mean about a lot of porch?
Maybe you can get two of the plain bags and somehow attach them...
Wonderful porch! Hanging baskets would be beautiful, too.
Obviously it's a start-from-scratch operation. Last year I had pots with citrus trees and other things that sat on the porch itself, and flowers in the bed below, but hanging baskets and something for the railing are a necessity. Maybe this year? I was thinking MsKatt's hanging bags with some of those planters that straddle the railing (maybe that's not what pirl meant?) would be neat.
http://www.gardeners.com/Railing-Flower-Planters/default/StandardCatalog.PotsPlanters_Windowboxes.18408.cpd
This is when the tulips were up, before I took the citrus trees outside:
So pretty! You could do so many things with such a sparkling house, beautiful roof and the wonderful annuals available.
You can see many ideas for combinations at Mischel's Greenhouses and more in their catalog. I love ordering from them.
I just got my Mischel's Greenhouse catalog a week or so ago. Love their combos! I was a bit disappointed though because they dropped a few of the calibrochoa selections.
I will probably place an order for the flower pouches since the price is so good even with shipping. Thanks for the tip;)
Mischel's also isn't carrying the beautiful fuchsias they used to. Have fun with the bags.
Received my hanging flower bags today! They are at least 50% bigger than the ones that I bought prefilled at the greenhouse! They feel quite sturdy and I'm sure if you wanted to attach two together at the handles to make saddle bags they would hold up!
I want to start planting!!!!!!! WAAAAAAHHHH. Just because it's -22...
Great MsKatt! Good to hear good news and a happy customer.
My computer had a glitch this morning and showed a double minus for the temperature: "--66". At least it wasn't THAT bad.
BRRRRRRRRR!!!
Minus 10 with wind chill factor.
Sixty-six below zero, huh? I'd be forced to stay in and do some more playing on DG. Bummer! LOL
Can you take pics of your flower bags, MsKatt? It's only a place like this this time of year where you can get people excited about something that came in the mail. Ha! Somehow I'm thinking your 40 pounds of soil isn't going to do it?
Oh...McGlory...I have *several* 40 lb bags of potting soil! :)
Here is a bad pic of the length, if you could read the ruler, it would say 2ft 6 inches:
http://picasaweb.google.com/michelle.katt/GardenAndIrises/photo#5028525188549648194
Width wise:
http://picasaweb.google.com/michelle.katt/GardenAndIrises/photo#5028525261564092242
And the openings for the plants (10 openings):
http://picasaweb.google.com/michelle.katt/GardenAndIrises/photo#5028525347463438178
The plastic is quite heavy, I was surprised. I ran out to Meijer (midwest chain store...on the order of Walmart) and they had hanging flower bags (and of course I thought...just because I found a mailorder place, now they are selling them 1/2 mile from my house). They were NOT very sturdy, had only six openings and were about 20 inches long. They were $1.29 plus tax. I paid about 50 cents more, but ended up with a much better product (I'm glad to say).
I think I might hang one near my mailbox. I may have to order more!!
What plants will go in the plant bags or is it too soon to ask?
I have several shady spots so I'm going to do some in impatiens, for sure. I have no idea what I'm going to put in the ones that will go in the sunnier spots. I need to do some more research!! Something that either mounds or trails. If I end up doing my MILs fenceposts, they are *all* sunny. I saw a website (have to dig for it again, later) that had some interesting combinations that I would like to copy.
So many choices and so many opportunities to create your own look!
You guys are hard on me! Here I was going to wait to see what my strawberry bag does, and now I'm thinking I need a bunch of those great bags and some impatience and a bunch of stuff from Mischel's Greenhouses and...
Hurray! Good thinking. Mischel's is good for ideas and good plants, too.
Hi, My husband has a roll of heavy duty plastic. Could a person make their own flower saddles?
I have the Thompson and Morgan bags. I believe they are the same ones/ size as the ones you recently ordered since they are almost 2 feet long and have 10 openings.
I have mostly full-sun so I put petunias in mine. Not even the wave ones, just regular old petunias. They looked great until it got really, really hot and I didn't keep up well with the watering. I filled mine with 1/2 potting soil and 1/2 coconut fiber. No matter what your climate, I'd recommend using some sort of water retention medium be it coconut fiber or water crystals. This year it won't be a problem for me because my new top-of-the-line irrigation system has drip emitters for all my pots/ bags.
T&M recommends the following plants for the bags:
Impatiens
Petunias
Lobelia
Begonia
Viola
Anagallis
Trailing Snapdragons
Asarina
Cuphea
Monopsis
Pansy
Sanvitallia
Verbena
Seandor, I thought the same thing. Wonder if a person could make their own. My sewing machine could do that. I've sewn heavy plastic on it before.
Do you all see any reason one couldn't make the same thing ? Is there anything in particulat that we can't tell from pics that needs to be considered ?
I don't think so, Peggie. I have some empty ones right now, so if anyone needs to pics let me know and I will post them.
MIchelle