Specialty Gardening: Are Plastic Containers Inherently Bad?, 1 by revclaus

revclaus wrote:
I did the wicking thing with my lily bulbs this fall. I'll see how it goes in the spring. I hope none of them rot this winter. I just heard an interesting suggestion on the lily forum. Somebody there said a friend of theirs didn't water in the lilies when they were planted in the fall and they seemed to do just fine in the spring, avoiding rotting.

A word about plastic pots. In the colder zones they don't seem to provide as much protection against the freeze/thaw cycle if you want to plant perennials, so I've always used pots that have some insulating properties. Apart from the fact that they never wear out I think it helps to use a sturdier pot for perennials, especially since they'll be in them for much longer than annuals.

I've had peonies and roses in my zone, but I've used Wilt-Pruf on the rose in the winter to protect from the high winds we get here. And I put bubble wrap around the peony for the winter which was planted in a large black nursery pot surrounded by a wood container. They both died from drought the summer I was sick, otherwise I've no doubt that they'd be with me now.

BTW, I bought my peony in Canada, it was a Paul Wild.

This message was edited Dec 31, 2007 11:06 PM