Planting a Mock Orange

Just a quick question--hoping someone here can be of assistance. I recently purchased a tiny (and I mean tiny!) slip of a mock orange (cultivar is "Innocence")--it arrived in the mail about three weeks ago in a four inch pot and is doing fine--currently blooming in fact. It seems very healthy, but I obviously need to plant it. My problem is that I currently don't know exactly where I want to put it, so how well would it do in a large pot for the summer? I was thinking that I'd then bury the pot in the fall and mulch the heck out of it if I can't figure out where exactly I want to put it by the end of the summer. Do you think it will be okay in the pot? Or would it be better to plant it and then move it next summer? I know I know--never buy something unless you know where you want to put it, but...sometimes I have a hard time following that.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

You are suffering from plantitis. This is a very serious condition but there's hope for you.

All joking aside, I do this all the time. No need to dig a temporary hole that you'd have to fill up sooner or later after you figure out where you're going to plant it. That plant is going to drop its leaves and go dormant sometime this fall. When it does, move it pot and all into your unheated garage that hopefully is attached to your home so it gets some radiant heat. Garages are nice because there is good air exchange in there because we go in and out all the time with our cars. A spot by a window is nice but not necessary. I swear it's as simple as that. Over the course of the winter, keep the plant damp, never moist. I do this by placing plants in drip trays and filling the trays with water to allow them to wick up but sometimes if I ram my finger down in the medium and notice that it is drying out, I will top water. Sometimes I sprinkle a little bit of sulfur on the surface. Sometimes I don't.

I overwinter hundreds of carnivorous plants in my garage. Our garage is heated but we set the temp to 38F because of those plants. I also over winter pond plants in the garage right in stock tanks filled with water and of course the temperate plants that I bought that I had no business buying end up in the garage too.

You could also do exactly what you mentioned above which would be to sink the plant, pot and all, into a hole in the ground. I've done that before combined with mulching heavily and they do fine. I'm sort of lazy though and tried the garage one year and found it was a perfectly acceptable alternative.

"You are suffering from plantitis. This is a very serious condition but there's hope for you."

LOL! So there's a name for it! :D I'm glad to see I'm not the only one so afflicted.

Thanks Equilibrium--you've made me feel much better, and you've taken away a small part of the anxiety that is a direct result of my current "oh (*E$)(*!!! I've got a gazillion things to plant" state. I think I'll give the mock orange a nice new pot and will find a happy home for him this winter in a warm corner of our attached garage. :)



This message was edited Jun 3, 2007 6:23 PM

There are many who are afflicted, whether they admit it or not in another story ;)

I believe it is called "gottahaveitcultivarititis". I, of course, am not afflicted.

I overwintered a mock orange (Buckley's Quill) in its pot by covering it with a thick layer of straw after it went dorman. I do this on a regular basis with all types of potted plants. It is convenient because I can leave it outside and not have to worry about watering it. Since I don't have a garage, it is the only way to help ensure their survival. I have overwintered a wide variety of plants this way and never lost anything but roses (which i don't have the best luck with anyway - I am trying to change that though!).

Gottahavanotherplantitis is certainly not one of my problems - LOL!

Cfarres--thanks for that--I may have to try that if I can't find room in the garage. :)

LOL Equilibrium and Snapple! I wonder if this disorder has a continuum of severity--such as the person who just can't pass up that end-of-year-perrenial sale at Home Depot and has to take some pathetic plant home ("I can save it!) all the way up to the person who trolls nurseries and garden centers daily for next fix. I can just see someone desperate to pay off their gardening debts at the nearest racetrack shouting "Momma needs a new spirea!"

Or maybe not. ;)

Thanks everyone!

Oh Lordie lordie lordie- "Momma needs a new spirea!"
I don't see anything wrong with that picture and I don't even gamble!

Gottahavanotherplantitis and gottahaveitcultivarititis are milder forms of plantitis. Nothing to worry about as far as I am concerned but there are 12 step programs out there for plantaholics if one feels they have unresolved issues that need to be addressed.

Remember, we can quit any time we want and there's nothing wrong with us... it's everyone else who has a problem. Well, really glad that's out in the open. I feel better already. Do you?