It depends on the plants in each size pot.

Fast growers need bigger pots than slow growers.

In other words, a small Bluestone pot could use anything from a quart pot to a trade gallon (3 quarts), depending on the plant's growth rate. The larger pots will need at least a trade gallon, and possibly larger. A slow growing shrub might get by with a trade gallon, but a fast grower could need a 2-3 gallon pot.

Be sure to use a good potting mix, with plenty of drainage and aeration.

I think if it was me I'd construct a holding garden. Order in a couple of cubic yards of triple mix and just make a raised mounded bed somewhere away from the caos of construction so that plants don't get trampled. You could plant them out in rows so that you know what is what and that way it's easier than worrying about potting them up.

tess

I don't have anywhere safe to put a holding garden, unfortunately. We have terrible soil (clay with lots of shards of ledge), and the yard is in the process of being graded, soil screened, etc. There is nowhere that is safe from the dozer. The yard is total chaos right how. As it is I need to string caution tape around my wild flowers (bloodroot, etc.) so they don't get destroyed.

I guess I won't get any pots smaller than a trade gallon, and I'll get some twos and threes as well. Hopefully a lot of them will get planted before next winter.

Thanks for the help.

Plants should not go from a very small pot to a very large one. They don't do well, though I'm not sure I could give you the technical reason why. Pot the liner plants from Bluestone into nothing larger than a 4 inch pot and if you have too, repot them later in the season.

If you have room for a 63-gallon-pot pot ghetto, you have room for a holding "bed". Dump two or three bags of bagged Home Depot topsoil in the same place you'd put the pots. Plant the plants in the soil. It will cut down the chances that the plants will dry out and will take the pressure off to replant in the fall.

I've experienced the loss of plants from putting them in pots too big. I think the main culprit is that the roots are in a tiny space in the middle of the pot and when you water, the texture of the new potting soil may be different than what the rootball is in, and especially if the new soil is lighter, the water runs out of the pot before it can really soak the rootball.

Ok. I won't go too big on the pots. So a quart size for the small ones, repot later if necessary.

I know it is hard to believe I have no place for a holding bed, but it's the truth. Our top soil was all scraped off, so we have two mountains of topsoil in the yard. Exposed is rock hard clay (our town used to be known for bricks) and shards of ledge. The entire area will be rescraped (final grade), tons of fill added, and then screened topsoil spread and seeded. This will involve moving the "mountains", a dozer, excavator, vibrating screen and backhoe. The only area that won't be disturbed is the woods. I know the way construction guys work (I'm married to one), the bed would end up in the way. Pots can be moved.

Very tricky to keep potted plants with different moisture requirements watered over an extended time period. Good luck.

Would the same issue exist with a bed? Meaning, if I create a bed to put all these plants in, won't there be issues making sure they all get the right amount of water when plants of varying requirements are mixed together?

I know potted plants need more water, but I figured I could organize them by water requirements.

If this is going to be really impossible I guess I could truck all the plants to my father's house (70 miles away) and put them in his now forgotten vegetable garden.

Any thoughts or advice are welcome.

70 miles away is far.

If it must be pots, your plants can be OK in pots. Most gardeners have a more or less permanent pot ghetto in any case! I would keep the pots in part shade whenever that is possible. If they have to be in full sun for awhile, do check them every morning - as you head off for work, for example, or when you get home, if you usually get home before dark.

Plant in a mix of potting soil and bagged topsoil. This would be my personal preference for water conservation, even though potted plants generally don't want heavy topsoil. I think any pots that give your plants some room to grow without being the size of Kansas should be fine.

Trays or water-catcher things under the pots may help save you some watering work.

In zone 5, if you can't get everything into a permanent planting spot by October, use the holding bed idea but just drop the plants (in their pots), into the soil. Plants in pots are vulnerable to freezing. Some people are able to overwinter stuff in pots in an unheated garage but from back when I lived in z5 I know for a fact that, when it was -12 outside, it was -12 in my garage. That's too cold for most potted plants, even if they're hardy in the ground.

I just started building a highrise pot ghetto today. $400 worth of pressure treated lumber was delivered this morning. It'll be 16' long, 4' deep and 5' high, with shelves at varying heights, covered with 1/2" hardware fabric. The whole thing will be covered with 1" chicken wire, to keep the tree rats out of my pots. It'll be covered with 6-mil clear poly in winter, and plumbed with a low-pressure drip/sprinkler/mister system to handle the watering.

I have any where from 200 to 500 potted plants at a time, and I need to get them out of my garden paths, and into a protected environment, with good irrigation. I ordered enough lumber to tack a 6' potting bench onto the end of it.

You can keep potted plants watered pretty efficiently with the right drip irrigation stuff. Home Depot sells 100' of quarter-inch drip tube with 1/2-gallon per hour emitters every 6" for about $15. Another $5 gets you all the fittings you need to set it up for connection to a garden hose, and if you make clips from coat-hanger wire, you can arrange it to have an emitter directly over 100' of pots. It's not pretty, but it's a good and cheap way to water lotsa pots with very little effort.

Hey Sue, I'll take them for you... oh, but you would want them back later? Nevermind. ;)

Seriously, Bluestone just now shipped my order, and I'm in Zone 6ish. If you haven't yet received an email that they shipped yours (assuming you ordered online) why don't you call them first thing in the morning? Let them know that you have unplanned construction (they don't need the details) and ask if they will ONLY ship any shrubs that you ordered now (because they don't ship shrubs in the fall and those should be relatively slow growers that need smaller pots) and then hold the rest until fall/next spring.

As long as you don't mind that they charged your credit card already, I can't see why they wouldn't do this for you and it would take a lot of burden off of you. At the very least, it couldn't hurt to ask!

By the way, if you do end up getting all of those plants in after all: The reason that small plants often do poorly in a large pot, according to my friend who works in a greenhouse, is usually due to too much water in the pot. The roots can rot out because the potting soil tends to hold moisture... but without a rootball that fits the pot size, the moisture isn't drawn up into a plant, etc. So be careful of overwatering small plants in large containers.

Thanks everyone. Order 1 arrived yesterday, order 2 is on its way. Some of them look pretty root bound, so I am going to do those first. Hopefully this will work and I won't lose them all.

I did overwinter a bunch of pots this past winter. Sunk them right in the ground. They all survived fine. I am hoping to get everything planted by this fall so I don't have to repeat that again (unless there is something I can't resist buying, which is how I ended up with overwintered pots this past season).

Donn, That sounds like quite the undertaking. Will you post pics?

Sure...here's the first pic:

{{gwi:209670}}

A pile of lumber in the carport. I've sawn some of it to length, and started setting up the first of 5 leg frames.

Unfortunately, other responsibilities in the garden have drawn me away from the project for a while. Planting, potting, watering and mowing couldn't be put off.

I ran across this thread while searching for something else, and thought I'd update it.

I potted up all the plants into larger pots. In fact, everything is still in pots. They are growing like crazy and most have bloomed or have buds. The project, so far, has definitely been a success. I told DH that I want to get a small greenhouse once the landscaping is in.

I've had no issues with deer or squirrels. One sea holly was munched by a woodchuck. You'd think he'd choose the tender hosta instead.

The pots are behind my garage, which faces west. This was the only place I could hide the "pot ghetto", and it's close to the hose bib. They have really hot afternoon sun once it hits them. I placed the shade-loving plants closer to the house, so they get less sun. When it's cooler (70s) I probably water every three days. On days like today (90s), I check everyday and probably water every other day.

I tried bagged potting soil and "garden soil". The garden center told me to use garden soil, but I found the plants did better in the potting soil.

So, for anyone considering this, I highly recommend it.

Great!!...
All that business about not potting a plant in too big a pot is nonsense. If it will die in a big pot it will also die in the ground! The answer is water it!!
Will you get them in the ground before the snow flies?
Linda C

Lindac,
I hope so, that is the plan. The surveying ribbons were laid so now we know how much fill we need (a lot) before the loam is spread. It's scary how expensive dirt is.