planting flowers in containers in the ground????

I am new to the Seattle, Washington area and have discovered I can start my flower gardening again here. We are currently renting our home and a woman I met at the gardening center told me she plants her flowers in the ground in their original plastic containers here in the Northwest. She said it is easy to replace them (especially the annuals she plants) or take them with you when you move. Is this really possible???
I've found no information on the web about this type of planting. Has anyone here tried it? My next door neighbor has a really beautiful garden and kinda looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned actually trying it. I don't mind planting something and leaving them here but I would hate to say goodbye to all my lovely flowers and hard work. On a side note we are not planning on moving anytime soon but our rent renewal is in January.

Thanks for any help or information,
Karen

What type of plants do you want to try it with?

I was thinking flowering plants like bulb plants or cut flower types and maybe trying to plant peonys also this way.

The pot, esp. if it's plastic, would certainly need very efficient drain holes so the roots don't rot. I don't see any advantage in planting annuals this way. Peonies would, over time, need to develop root systems far larger than the pot would allow, so that wouldn't work very well. In fact, any perennial would do the same thing. The more I think about this and the way the pots would constrict the roots as they try to spread out, the more inclined I am to encourage you to not do this.

When I recieve/buy perenials in the fall and can't decide where to put them, I plant them in the ground in the pots to overwinter them. Obviously, no new growth so it doesn't hurt the plants, but I always find them a permanent home in the spring. If you really want perenials, look for varieties that would be easy to dig up and divide so that you could take some with you if/when you move. I think you might be better off with annuals. I agree with dp72 about the plastic pots. It won't take any longer to dig a hole for a plant in a pot then it would to actually take it out and plant it. With the annuals you can get a large impact now. As far as leaving your flowers and hard work behind-they'll probably be enjoyed by new tenants and your neighbor for years to come and 'your flowers' may even influence someone else to try gardening.

I have this same dilemma as i too rent my home and have put quite a bit of time and money into the HB/BF garden I have planted. There may be a few plants I'll dig up and take with me, but I plan on rooting a few cuttings of the vines and large shrubs so that I'll have them when I eventually do move. I'd hate to feel like I worked so hard just to leave it all behind, regardless of how much the new tenants might enjoy it. Money and time is money and time...and to have to start all over again would just be entirely too expensive. Some things will stay and cuttings will be taken, others will be dug up and moved along with the rest of the household.

I think the way you are doing it is smart cue_chik. Plants survive better when they are planted in the ground and rooting cuttings isn't hard. From my own personal experience, I'd highly recommend you carefully mark all your plants so if you move during the months they are dormant, you could still dig up some roots. Hubby and I sold our other house during the late winter and I didn't know exactly where any of the many beautiful daylilies I had were so I had to leave them all behind (along with many other flowers). To add insult to injury, we drove past the house a couple of years later and the new owners had let all those beautiful flowerbeds go back to grass :-{

See, I had already thought about that...LOL. what if the new tenanats that moved in werent really garden people? well, my intention is to leave my phone # with a note stating that I had spent alot of time and money in placing the garden, knowing full well that I would not always be there to enjoy it. That I hope that they do, but if ever they decide they no longer wish to keep any or all of the plants, to please call me and I will be more than happy to come remove them before they decide to just throw them out in the trash bin.

Because we had a big dog who sat anywhere she wanted, I grew almost all my plants in large pots. It might be worth investing in some good sized plastic pots (lighter weight for moving). I have bulbs, small shrubs, perennials, and annuals in them. They can be sunk into the ground if you like that look better, just remember to fill the holes when you move them.

Never had much problem digging up and transplanting all/bits of perennials. Peonies are very hardy. Can leave a chunk unplanted for a period of time and still does well when planted.
When moved, dug up perennials and planted them in gallon pots and then replanted over several months. Also regularly keep perennials, both dug up and purchased, in various size pots outside over winter. Use my upgraded garden soil. Large bulk survive. Have only planted in ground, in pots, with a few invasive runner. They still escaped. In our area (which is definitely not the North West) would be concerned with potted planted plants drying out.
Sympathies to NatureLover1950 re moving. Feel your pain!

Thanks so much for all the input and feedback. I think I'm leaning towards planting the flowers in the ground and taking some cuttings with me . Maybe I will try a few in pots just to see how it goes. I just hope we are here to see the flowers pop back up to say hello next spring or the next person enjoys them as much a I would have.

Thanks again,
Karen

Karen.......I have had a lot of fun and a lot of success growing flowers in pots buried in 3x6 foot raised beds. I grew most everything in one gallon nursery containers. As the dirt in the raised beds settled in due to watering, a perfect pot sized hole would form. You could just lift out a one gallon pot and it would leave a perfect one gallon sized hole. You can move the individual one gallon pots around to your hearts delight. As summer progresses, you can start playing the "move the pot"game. You can move the shorter plants up front and taller ones to the rear. You can even move them around according to some kind of color scheme, if you are the artistic type. As some plants fade out in the summer heat, they can be removed and placed in a "nursery" area. Top trim them and root trim them and stick them back in their pot. Lots of flowers bloom strong in the spring, fade in the summer, and re-bloom again in the cooler autumn weather. You should always have some new and different plants coming along in your nursery area to use to re-juvinate your main flower beds. All it takes is enough strength to tote a one gallon pot. If you decide a certain plant just doesn't meet your expectations, just jerk it out of its pot and throw it in the compost pile. No pain, no strain, no digging. Your garden can consist of many one gallon (or 2 gal, or 3 gal, etc) "pot-holes" that you can fill with whatever you wont to.

A tremendous variety of plants grow very good in one gallon pots, especially annuals. Lift the pots occasionally and snip off any roots growing out of the pots drainage hole. Also lift the plants out of the pots and if they are getting root bound, trim the roots and top to re-juvinate the plant. It will be set back for only a short time while it recovers in your nursery area. Checking your plants in this way will help you determine which plants might grow better in a larger pot......a 2 gallon pot for instance. You are not restricted to the one gallon size but it will probably be your main size of pot. Save yourself a ton of money by using cheap nursery pots, possibly free from your local nurseries.

The key to making this system work good is the "nursery" area I mentioned where extra plants are brought along to be used as needed and where needed.

Perennial plants that you might wont to take with you when you move can be grown in reasonable sized nursery pots. Some plants, perennial and annual, can get very aggressive. They will poke their roots out the drainage holes and grab a big chunk of mother earth if you let them and you will have to chop the roots to lift them out of the grow bed. The trick here is to not let that happen, keep the roots snipped outside of the pots and move those particular plants to larger pots untill you reach the size you need for them. Some plants may be just too aggressive for this system. I am attaching a pic of the roots of a butterfly bush that grew so much in one year that it shattered a 2 gallon nursery container and sent roots deep into the ground. I did not keep the roots snipped on that one. A Mexican marigold mint was even worse.

You can enjoy gardening this way and when you move, just pick up your containers..........and don't forget to fill in the holes.:-) Pot-hole gardens are a lot of fun!

That is great feedback about planting in pots.

On a side note: I grew up in little Kerrville,Texas. How funny is that!
Thanks again from this Tivy Antler!

I planted a brugmansia in a 15 gallon easi-lift grow bag sunk into the ground so I could haul it out the end of the season and overwinter it in the basement.

It's kinda neat because brugs don't grow in the dirt in Connecticut and to those passing by, it appeared this one is

That is a large grow bag but I don't see why small ones (or even heavy duty trash bags) wouldn't work for most anything. Just put some cardboard at the bottom of the hole so the roots don't grab into the soil.

Here's the brug in a bag:

Btw...grow bags are inexpensive. Even the large white heavy duty ones are only a few bucks. The black basic ones are around a dollar.

Same brug before lowering it and the growbag into a hole in the lawn:

This message was edited Apr 8, 2009 1:47 AM

:-),"-)......atta boy, David, Keep them guessing!

Maybe it’s a good idea to grow some plants in containers in the ground. I was thinking of aggressive spreaders like mint and bamboo... Ed

Ed....haven't done it myself but read about using buried chimmey flue liners to contain mint. A thread from last month in the Garden Design forum on where to buy them, how they look etc:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/961692/

David_Paul How neat and what a great idea regarding Brugmansia. It is beautiful and looks so natural growing " in the ground". It is a plant I would love to grow in my Wyoming garden. However, I know it is far from hardy here. However, you gave me hope. So now my question/s.

I have successfully overwintered Daturas by placing damp peatmoss around their roots, stored them in a plastic bag and placed in my fridge over winter. They were more beautiful in blooms the following summer and quicker to blooms than from seeds.

Can the same be done with Brugmansia? Or are the roots too large?
I have what is called a "crawl space" under the house, not a basement. I can stand up but it's a dirt floor. How cool do you keep your Brugmansia in your basement during the winter and does it go dormant?

I have gardened for more than 40 years, yet never heard of a grow bag. Nor have I seen them offered in any garden store. Are they just plastic bags?

I would so appreciate it if you explain the procedure you use in faking them growing in the ground, and their aftercare, if any.

On a side note, I grew up in NY, and lived there for years. I have also been to NJ and had friends in CT. So much easier to grow plants back East.

The photo shows Datura inoxia plants, which I stored over winter in the fridge.

blomma....very nice datura! There is one near me growing wild by the side of the road. Doesn't look as nice as yours but you can tell what it is. A horticultist at a nursery told me to look for it. I didn't think they survived outside in CT.

My basement hovers around 55F. I think from 40F to 45F is recommended to force brugs into dormancy but I got what I got and it worked last year. Did neglect to water it enough when dormant and the main trunk withered. But as you can see above that did no lasting damage.

Last year the brug sat in the basement from mid October until the end of May.

The black grow bags are very much like black plastic bags (the heavy ones called "contractors" trash bags) with holes in the bottom. I think you could make your own easy enough. Here are some nursery ones:

http://www.groworganic.com/item_GP215_Plastic_Nursery_Grow_Bags_5_Gal.html

Nurseries use grow bags now because they are inexpensive to ship. easy to store and cheaper than pots. 5 gallon black plastic ones run around a buck. The double-sewn white 15 gallon Easi-Lift bag with handles I used for the brug was around $4. They last several seasons with care. Look nice too. Here are some at Peaceful Valley in California (where I got mine):

http://www.groworganic.com/item_GP260_EasiLift_Grow_Bags_12_Gal.html?welcome=T&theses=4604854

All I did was fill the bag with some soil, decomposed cow manure, left over and used potting mix, plop the brug into it and lower the growbag into a hole in the ground.

Did run into trouble pulling it out in the fall. The roots had snaked out of the holes and grabbed into the dirt. This year I'll put cardboard in the bottom of the hole.

Quite a move from NY to Casper, WY. How did that happen?

I went from CT to Mojave desert (CA/AZ/NV tristate area) but am glad, after decades, to be back home.

David_Paul Thank you so much for taking the time to explain and answer my questions. I really appreciate that. Wow! I will surely mention this trick to my daughter who lives 7 miles from me.

I am going to try that trick next year. I would "plant" it smack in the middle of my front yard where everyone could see and admire it. Everyone loved the Daturas I had planted in the front. They sure emitted a heady fragrance in the evening.

Went to the links you have above. Ok, now I realize what they are. Yes, I can make them myself. Actually I do have the heavy contractors plastic bags from Walmart that I use for leaves.

Do you trim back your Brugmansia at all, and do they flower on new or old growth? In other words, can they be trimmed back in height and still bloom. Also my daughter has a enclosed and heated front porch my son-in-law just finished building for her houseplants. Will a Brugmansia bloom during the winter there? It faces south and gets sun all day.

As far as moving to Casper, we lived on Long Island, NY, then moved to MA. During the late 70's recession we moved to NE. I divorced and moved to WY.

Thanks so much again