my mantra is now:...no more small pots, no more small pots....can you please remind me that i can buy NO MORE..; i am a nutcase, not only do they not give enuf soil to handle most plants they dry out in this hot west texas sun and the plant doesn't do so well; so i have a 1000 small pots...; why do i buy more? i seem to have this aversion to paying bucks for a large pot cause i don't have alot of them...; or i have an aversion to buying big plants to fill big pots....or i really stink at doing multiple plants in large containers; so repeat after me....scream at me....NO MORE SMALL POTS....
anyone have this problem? i really honestly think it is a 'cheap' issue....; i think my brain sez, oh, look at that cute ...so and so plant; i will be gertrude gardener and make it grow into monster plant (NOT) and that way i won't have to pay the big bucks for monster plant....help please!!!!
Now repeat after me...NO MORE SMALL POTS...NO MORE SMALL POT
I always buy stuff in small pots when I can, that way if I kill it then I don't feel bad that I killed a $50 plant, instead I only killed a $5 plant. Much more cost effective that way! Plus for the same amount of money, I can get 10 $5 plants or one $50 plant, who wouldn't rather have 10 plants instead of 1!
I always buy plants in small pots too. Cannot seem to get over that whole $$$ thing when I know in a year of two that $10 plant will be the same size as that $50 plant (that is if I get around to actually putting it in the ground or in the correct sized empty pot... but that is another subject altogether..........) :^)
I hear ya Sticks. I had over a hundred containers last year. Watering was a nightmare. This year I am trying to buy larger containers and less of them. I don't think it is working. I bought a really cute little ceramic bunny planter yesterday to put a coleus in. I have a garden shed full of smaller pots. It's mental. :-)
Juanita
;o)
I'm going through the same thing. I used to just be all about the expense of pots but have come to realize (and that's only taken about 11 or so years) that the plants don't stay tiny just because you put them in a small pot and I hate watering every morning and evening:LOL: My choice of pots have been getting larger and larger. I have one gigantic pot at the front door with smaller pot clusters around it. I bought alot of co-op stuff this year so more large pots will be required--Trust me, I know what you mean!
Tetleytuna were we separated at birth:LOL: I feel the same way. I will also go to the pricey upscale nursery near my house and buy the perennials 1/2 price at the end of season when they look are scraggly and dead because I know they'll be back next year, well, lilke you said provided I actually get them situated:LOL:
Tapla--the perfect plant/pot combo.
No more small pots....well...ahhhh....are you sure?
No more small pots?
OK, now more small pots :-)
i know what yall mean about buying something that we might kill....and yes, if it is something that i am not sure of my skills then i will buy something small....and alot of times i have to buy something small cause they dont sell it in larger sizes....then i do the little small pot mentality and rather than combining several small plants like i said i was going to do when i left the nursery, i separate them and have a gillion small plants....NO MORE ...NO MORE....NO MORE
It's nice to know I am not the only one who kills off the small potted plants.
It seems just when they get to looking great, I forget a day or two and poof, gone.
So I move it over to the dead pot pile and keep going. Isn't that sad?
I have bought a few big pots and am trying them under a tree for part shade in this hot summer area.
I am so lucky, I install sprinklers for a living and all my pots, large and small are on emitters. In the heat of summer I have them come on 3 times a day for 2 mins.
These are 10" terra cotta (we all know terra cotta dries out in about 10 mins.)
dale....we have a sprinkler system....i never thought about doing that? HEY i could have a gillion small pots now instead of a million!!!! oh dear hubbie...where are you ....i nneeeddd some new emitters on my pots...(grin)
thanks dale for giving my hubbie a purpose in life!!!
Hey Dale_a_gardener
My husband said that it cost about $10,000 for a sprinkler system to be installed. I can't believe that is correct. We only have a medium front yard and a big back yard.
Can you tell me if he is close?
rustyswoman...we did it ourselves and it cost about 2 to 3 thousand dollars....it was some hard work and we were stupid in not renting a trencher but it was well worth the $ spent....ended up saving on our water bill too
rustyswoman,
Depending on your soil and the square footage, yes it could go that high. If you live in a rocky area and have a quarter acre the cost skyrockets.
For my potted plants I use what is known as a poly-line and the system is above ground. The parts on a system for 20-30 pots (maxium number for at 1/2" line) costs about $200 (includes a timer) takes about 10 hrs (at $45).
Sorry I don't have a photo of one, but, I will take some photos of one that I just finished.
In the meantime>
Thank you, I was wondering if I was being told the truth!
What lovely geraniums.
I like the poly line idea. I will have to see if I can do that too.
Poly line systems are just a complex set of boy's tinker toys.
This pot has a sprinkler in it. You take a concrete drill bit, make an extra hole in the bottom of the pot and run the feed line up, I keep mine to one side, then it is out of the way when you change the flowers, less likely to get chopped up with a trowel. Top the line with an emitter array and your watered.
Wow! That is smart. I know I have a concrete drill bit somewhere...
I had to laugh about this thread. Last year we bought a new house and moved almost 200 plants in pots that ranged from 10 gallons to 2 inches. We didn't have anywhere to plant them at the new house so they went on the shadiest side of the house. Even a couple hours a day of Nevada sunshine can be lethal and I was getting tired of dragging the hose around the house twice a day. I set up a polyline system with micro-sprinklers for groups of the tiniest pots and miles of quarter inch soaker hose run across the tops of the bigger pots (so I didn't have to install several dozen drippers). The whole thing hooked into the existing drip/sprinkler system and came on twice a day.
Most of the plants survived the summer. I tried to move some this spring to find they had grown through the drain holes and into the dirt underneath. I'm down to a couple dozen plants that don't have homes yet but I can plant them this summer. Then I get to buy more right?
Of course. Hard work like that deserves a reward
oh you definitely get to buy TONS more:)
ok...i had a slip....2 days in a row....i bought 2 new pots.....; the good news is that i made sure i only bought those 2....there were more that i wanted....but i used self control.....where were you guys? yall were suppossed to help me not buy any more small pots??!!
I think too many small containers looks cluttered and haphazard. I prefer fewer, larger containers strategically placed for best visual appeal, mixing together plants requiring same light and water conditions. All my containers are on drip, including the patio ones.
pheitmeyer...i totally agree with you and then i go and buy more small things...my brain is warped...that is why i started this thread....rather than throwing away my money on millions of small containers i would make my life easier if i would buy some really nice large containers and then what do i do??
one mistake i see people make is that they take a gillion containers and spread them thru their yard to make it 'look' better....it just looks messy; (at least i have mine in little vignettes....cant hear the merchandizing background in me can ya?(g)
:)
Note that I didn't say I don't BUY small containers and/or plants - I do - as you know, it's hard to turn down a $2 plant discounted @ home D or wMart, but I do so only with tropical plants that I then relocate them immediately into my north/tropical garden area.
pheitmeyer very nicely done....you have the touch!!!
and i do have to say in my defense i do only buy on sale...(most of the time)...yesterdays slip was a pot that i got at a thrift store for .50cents....then 2 days b4 i got one for 3 bucks...both are vintage...which sometimes is more quality
than todays flimsy pots...
here is one vignette...and look at the white pot to the left of the screen and it has something ailing in it....hmmmm could it be cause the pot is too small to do well?? but also notice...i have 5 pots crammed onto that table...
this is probably a better example...there are minimum 15 pots in this picture....it is getting pretty messy....
nice plants. and the groupings are attractive. i like your urns as well, that's my style, mediterranean/tuscan style. at least your pots aren't the ones the plants came in, sometimes people have tons of little containers all original from the store, all plastic, and it's not really that appealing in my opinion.
pheitmeyer...funny you should say that about using the original pots the plants came in .....i am a lazy gardener....those pewter urns-- well the plants in them are in their original pots stuffed into the urn.....i can get 2- 6 inch pots in one grey pewter urn....; i did happen to get each urn on sale at hobby lobby for 4.99 each.....90% off; i bought all they had left....
Sticks, small pots have their uses, like in your urns (gorgeous, by the way). I used to (see? I'm cured!) put them around my large containers to hide the naked bottoms. But the problem is having to water them 500 times a day! Even grouping them, they dry out way too fast. So it's best NOT to buy small pots. Makes sense, right??
More small pots?
I love the jade plant in the nutshell! I have ones that start from leaf drops that are that tiny!
Have to find some big acorns.
Martha
dale those are pretty
gardenmart... i couldnt see a jade plant in a nutshell?
Here ya go Joni!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=3443308
brinda ...thanks for the encouragement!!!
tapla's photo up above. it's a tiny jade in an acorn cap on the person's palm. check it out. I do have jade plants that small.
Martha
oh...i saw that one...:)